Adventures In The Twilight
by oRpheusB20
Summary: Link returns to being a goat herder in Ordon after Midna returns to the Twilight Realm, but when he goes to sleep one night, he awakens in the Twilight Realm and joins Midna while she does princess-y things. Unfortunately, things get complicated quickly. Post-Twilight Princess, duh. Basically discontinued. Has thusly been picked up by kyler.hiser.
1. Waking In The Twilight

**This popped into my head and I couldn't help but make it. I always like some of the fics that explored what happened after Midna shatters the Mirror of Twilight, or in at least one case, fails. I don't think I read that one, but I remember see it at one point or another. For some reason, I was really craving playing Twilight Princess this weekend, so yesterday I was playing it, and today I made this, along with some sidetracked moments.**

**This could have a whole story, but I'm not sure if I could manage that. We'll see. Anyway, found this rather fun to make.**

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It had only been no more than a week after the strange events that had plagued the whole of Hyrule. Not that the majority of the citizens were aware of what happened to begin with. All they knew was some unusual monsters were wandering around attacking various villages, a barrier incased the castle, and a couple days later, the castle blew up.

Most of the castle was rebuilt by this point, and Link had returned to Ordon. He had figured that he should resume his duties as a goat herder since there was no reason for him to continue roaming Hyrule. Though after the first day without the weight of his sword and shield, he started to miss it and began wearing his shield around on his back to help a little. He didn't wear his sword just in case Talo wanted to steal it from him and killed someone. No one questioned him directly, but he had heard one or two of the villagers mutter concerns to one another. Most of them included what would happen if he started wearing his sword and wanted to swing it around, and somehow slicing the children up. Adults had some screwed up minds.

During the time that Link was gone saving Hyrule, Rusl had apparently found his wooden sword that had broken and been stabbed into the ground. When he wasn't helping Hyrule not be destroyed from the forces of evil, he was fixing it to its former glory. When Link returned to Ordon and started to wear his shield for no apparent reason, he had told Link that though he was surely capable of not running the children through with a real one, he would prefer the boy used the wooden play item as a precautionary anyway. Link shrugged and accepted his old weapon. The next day, he wore that around as well.

Though he could easily fix not feeling correct without the weight of his weapons, one thing couldn't be fixed. The feeling of his wolf form and the constantly moving weight atop him was gone, and he couldn't get it back.

This particular day, after rounding up the goats, Link decided to sit by Ordona's spring as twilight fell upon the village. He stared sadly up at the orange-red sky. He stayed there until the sky was more black than orange, at which point he returned to his house.

Carefully, Link removed his gear, placing them down on the table. He threw together some dinner and munched on it as he wandered around his house, doing this and that; putting his money that he had gotten from various places around the village in the chest in his basement. He had actually started using his items from his quest in some really impractical ways. Not like they were going to be used otherwise. He stood at the bottom of the ladder and lighted his lantern, putting on his Clawshot and pulling himself over to the chest, dumping his savings in there and then clawshotting back to the ladder, hooking on halfway up to save him most of the trip.

He was doing that a lot now. If a goat tried to escape, he would simply put on his Iron Boots and continue whatever he was doing and only holding out a hand for the goat to ram into. He used the Clawshots to get around, and the Gale Boomerang to knock stuff out of trees. He had gotten one or two complaints, but otherwise the villagers just watched him go about his business with curious expressions.

Back upstairs, Link put his stuff back down on the table by his other stuff that he couldn't carry around with him on a regular basis. (*Ball and Chain) He climbed up to the small area that housed his bed and threw off his shirt, plopping down on his bed. He tossed around a little, but soon, he fell into a deep sleep…

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When Link awoke, he was wearing his Hero's Clothes that he had worn during his quest to save the two worlds. He was extremely confused, but was more so when he realized he was sitting in the middle of the Twilight Realm. A couple of the inhabitations looked at him strangely, but otherwise ignored him in favor of continuing what could be assumed as shopping, but Link wasn't quite sure.

Then two things hit him. One, he was probably in a dream. Two, even if he was in a dream, then he could still go and see Midna. He happily started to wander around the area, taking in the sights, watching the particles float around the sky.

Eventually, out of the corner of his eye, Link spotted what looked like Midna in her imp form, but without her Fused Shadow helmet. With nothing better to do, he followed her. At one point or another, she turned around. She stopped whatever she was doing when Link entered her view. She approached him.

"What are you doing here?! I destroyed the Mirror of Twilight for reason you know!" She hissed in a low whisper to avoid unnecessary attention.

Link grinned happily. "I have no idea how I'm here. What I do know though is that I'm here, and am talking to you. Hey, why are you back in that imp form?"

Midna looked around at the surrounding Twilight creatures. Link's human form was starting to attract attention. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. She led him into the palace, and once there was no one watching them, she changed into her true form.

"You can transform at will now?" Link asked, looking up to see her face.

"It's some advanced magic, but yes, I can. I use that form so I can wander outside the palace with no one recognizing me." Midna explained. "Being a princess is difficult after all." Link nodded in understanding. "So why are you here?" Midna suddenly was completely serious.

Link shrugged as he filled her in on what she missed. "After you left, I returned to Ordon and resumed being a goat herder. It's been about a week now. I just went to sleep and awoke in the middle of the Twilight Realm's streets."

Midna sighed. "Well, nothing you can do now. Looks like you're stuck here."

Link wasn't sure whether to be happy or saddened. He had found the Twilight Realm quite calming when he was there after defeating Zant and wasn't being chased by giant creepy floating hands. On the other hand, if he didn't get back, he would be in some deep shit, unable to see his friends and the people he considered family again. And who knows what Twili ate. Midna had eaten Hylian food, but only because there wasn't any food from the Twilight Realm. At least, that's what he figured was the problem. She had eaten quite begrudgingly for awhile until she got used to it.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Midna spoke again. "Though your Hylian form does attract attention that is rather unnecessary."

Link smiled. "That's a simple fix. Just turn me into a wolf. If I'm stuck here, it won't matter. I'm starting to really miss that form anyway."

Midna frowned. "You'll be stuck as a wolf though, and I don't see a Master Sword anywhere that can change you back. And I don't know of any magic that can change you."

"Everyone will question why I'm here otherwise. I need to look at least somewhat native." Link pointed out. "And I don't mind. If I return to the Light Realm, then I'll get you to teleport me to the Sacred Grove. Last I checked, there was still a portal floating above the statues."

Midna was momentarily lost in thought. Finally, she sighed in defeat. "Fine." She spun around and walked down through the palace, to what was pretty much a giant basement, eventually coming to a stop in front of a room that contained a couple small artifacts, though nothing big or noteworthy in Link's mind, except the small black and orange shard of dark power that hovered in the center. "We, uh, have kind of shoved all of Zant's stuff down here until we can dispose of it all."

Link looked at the stuff. There were the two Zant hands that chased the two endlessly on their quest to take back the Sols, and some things that Link guess was in his room before he tried to be an evil overlord. There were various other objects that were quite dangerous, and it wasn't a surprise that the stuff had been locked away so deep under the palace.

With the flick of a finger, Midna called forth the Shadow Crystal, careful to not touch it. Then with little thought, she jabbed it into Link's forehead. Link yelped and transformed into a wolf. He shook his head a little and started to get used to being a wolf again. While he was wondering around the room, sniffing the various objects and checking things out, he suddenly felt a weight drop down on his back. On instinct, he swiveled his head back to glare at the creature that landed on him, but he quickly forgave her when he saw her grin at him. She was back in the imp form, so she could actually fit on him.

"Onwards, wolfy!" She commanded. For the hell of it, he jumped forward, full speed, just to jostle her a little. She yelped and clung to his fur until he slowed down. After that, he stayed at a constant trot, letting Midna guide him to the destination of her choosing. They walked into a room that consisted of nothing but a Sol in the center.

Link turned his head to look at Midna curiously. She waved her hand in a sign to move forward. He obediently followed her instructions and walked forward. When he neared, Midna jumped off his back and picked up the sphere. She touched it to his head and watched as it somehow forced the Shadow Crystal out of him. Midna smiled. "As I thought. The Crystal will be forced out of you if it's close enough to a Sol. OK then, back you go." She then forced him back into the wolf form, before putting the Sol back onto its pedestal.

The two set off again. This time, Midna guided him to what seemed to be her bedroom. It was rather bland, but it held a peaceful atmosphere. She jumped off; sitting on the bed and watching him sniff around the room. After awhile, she whistled to him. Link glanced up. She beckoned him over.

"Just because we're stuck in the hour of Twilight, don't mean we don't have to sleep." She reminded him. She yawned. "Sadly, I've been lacking it because we're still recovering from Zant's invasion."

Link nodded, understanding that she needed to sleep, and curled up on the ground, preparing for sleep. She whistled to him again. He looked up at her.

"Do you really want to sleep on the cold, hard ground?" She smiled. "Come on. You come here, ruining whatever free time I had, and you don't even let me use you as a pillow?"

Link smiled as much as a wolf could. He jumped up onto the bed and curled up at the head. Midna rested her head on his stomach and fell asleep. Link himself was soon unconscious, though he didn't want be fall asleep in case this was all just a dream, which was one he never wanted to leave at this rate. Regardless, he was out like a light soon enough.

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**I can kind of imagine Link feeling off balance without his sword and shield, at least without a sword's scabbard.**

**So, yeah, might continue this, might not. It depends. Reviews, favorites, follows, that sort of thing should influence the decision, but I still want to complete at least on of my other stories that I'm working on. Though since I'm only, like, halfway through one, I think I know which one I'm going to be going with.**


	2. A Very Boring Meeting

**Amazingly, this has 8 follows as of the moment and 5 favorites. I figured that was more than enough to warrant a second chapter. Anyway, thanks to you all that actually read through the first chapter and found it good! The next chapter will hopefully get to the meat of it.**

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#2

When Link woke up that morning, he was disappointed to find that he was back in Ordon, on his bed. He let out a low whine as he thought to himself, 'It was all a dream. A pleasant one, but a dream nevertheless.'

Now feeling slightly depressed, he got up and got ready for the day. He put his wooden sword and shield on, while shoving a piece of bread in his mouth, and attached his Clawshots to his belt, walking outside and blowing the horse call Ilia had made for him. Epona came and stood beside the ladder, awaiting her master to come down. Link jumped down and settled himself onto her saddle, deciding to take the slower route today. Though he started to question why he grabbed his Clawshots.

As Epona trotted to the spot she knew that she should be moving to, Link let his mind wander to the dream he had had the night before. He remembered it in much more clarity than he would normally remember a dream. Was it really a dream?

Epona came to a halt, jolting Link out of his thoughts as she snorted at him to get off and get working. Link laughed at the horse, lightly patted her, and dismounted.

Though he usually had some kind of conversation with Fado, today, he was silent, only grunting slightly when Fado said something. The older man took notice, obviously, but didn't say anything, knowing that it was a personal thing, as he had been having slight trouble adjusting back to the slow ranch life that he had been forced away from for a while. He had never said to any of the villagers what exactly happened during the majority of his quest, so no one knew how to help him. All they knew was that he changed. And he seemed to have lost someone that he really cared about.

When the day was over, Link rounded up the goats and left without another word, trying his best to avoid the other villagers.

In his house, Link made himself a small dinner, but didn't really feel all that hungry, though he had forgotten to have lunch, and his breakfast had been small.

Throwing his stuff to the side with a lot less care than he should have, Link climbed up to his bed, plopping down on it and hoping to the goddesses that he either he wouldn't be tortured by a dream that could never come true, or that his dream had been a reality, and that his spirit traveled dimensions in his sleep.

Not that such a thing was possible.

Slowly, Link fell asleep…

Link was jolted awake when a powerful voice called out, "PRINCESS, GET YOUR LAZY ASS OUT OF THAT BED!"

A weight on his stomach that he didn't even notice was there jumped, and then there was 'thunk' as the thing/person fell to the ground. He heard a groan.

Opening his eyes and shaking his head to get rid of the last traces of sleep, Link looked over the edge of the bed, finding Midna was lying there, almost as though she was playing dead.

'I'm back…?' Link thought, noticing he was back as a wolf again. 'I wonder, is this is real then…?' Getting up, he jumped down from the bed and poked the Twilight Princess with his wet nose. She glanced up at him with a tortured look. She let out a sigh and stood.

The Twili that had yelled at her to get up nodded, satisfied, and left the room, not even questioning Link's presence, though Midna hadn't told anyone who he was. Link looked up curiously at his friend. She let out a yawn and sat down on the bed as she tried to wake up. Link sat down on the ground and rested his head on her thigh, looking up at her. She laughed at his behavior and stroked his fur. Link closed his eyes and soaked in the peacefulness of the moment.

That moment was ruined when someone banged on the wall, the noise resonating through whatever material made up the walls of the Twilight Palace, a clear 'hurry up.' Link growled in annoyance. It couldn't be more than 5 o'clock in the Twilight Realm, if this wasn't just a dream, which would mean the times were off. Then that would mean that when he was saving this Realm, he was doing so in the middle of the night. He started to question other things about the Realm he never noticed before. At least, he wanted to, but didn't have the time.

Midna stood with a sigh and started to walk out the door. Link figured that she wouldn't be riding him for a while, as neither of them knew how anyone Midna had connections with would react. It probably wouldn't be the best though, that was for sure.

They entered a room where it was obvious people got together to discuss the matters of the Realm. Every seat except the head, which was obviously the princess's spot, was occupied already, and the majority of the Twili were annoyed, and weren't afraid to show it. It was clear they hadn't been on the receiving end of Midna's anger, or seen it. That or they knew how to remain respectable to a point where it wouldn't anger the princess, even in their annoyance.

Regardless, Midna took her seat, looking as dignified as one could look after being waken at 5 in the morning. Link sat down beside her, actually quite glad that he couldn't see above the table in his wolf form. He didn't want the other Twili staring at him.

"What is that?" One of them asked coldly.

Link stiffened as Midna glanced at him. "Link?" She asked the Twili to confirm what he was talking about.

"The beast." He replied. "What is it? It certainly isn't a creature I've seen wandering the plains of our Realm." He was probably scowling. "Is it a Light Dweller?"

Link tensed even more. Midna was unmoved. "And if he is?"

The man didn't respond for a second. Finally, he said, "Why is it here!? Light Dwellers don't belong in our Realm! And didn't you claim you broke the connection of this world and the Light's?"

"This 'Light Dweller' has been in this Realm before!" Midna flared up. "In fact, this 'Light Dweller' is the only reason you're sitting in that seat today!" Link poked her lightly with his nose, in an attempt to calm her. She looked at him and sighed. "So long as I rule this Realm, I call the shots, and I say he is allowed to stay." She commanded, and the Twili fell silent, though not without a grumble beforehand.

The rest of the day was an absolute bore. The Twili talked for so long that Link feel asleep, and was only woken when someone attempted to wake Midna, who had apparently fallen asleep with no one noticing for at least an hour.

After that happened, the princess called for a short break, as she clearly wasn't going to get anything done like that. A servant fetched her the Twilight equivalent to steak, as it was almost dinner-time. She looked at Link, who was watching her with interest. She smiled and cut off a chunk and chucked it to him. He leaped up and caught it with grace, settling down on the floor, gnawing on the food, finding it to be actually quite good, considering what he had expected.

With hunger having been satisfied, they begrudgingly returned to the room they had been sitting in for hours on end. And the process repeated. Link once again fell asleep, though he didn't want to, so he could keep Midna awake.

Some time later, someone poked him in the side until he cracked his eyes open. Midna was standing there, in her imp form, the look in her eyes saying that she was just about to fall asleep. Link got up and looked around the room, finding that the whole place had been deserted.

Slowly, Midna crawled up onto his back and didn't move anymore as Link trotted over through the path that he hoped was the way to her room. By some amazing luck, he managed to find the place he had been hoping to find.

Through some more luck, the wolf managed to crawl up onto the bed without disturbing the imp on his back. Once he was standing on top of it though, the magic that had made Midna into a small imp broke, and she was suddenly her full size, crushing Link underneath. He wiggled out and pushed the princess into a more comfortable position. He then curled up onto of her feet. Why? Well, he didn't quite know. What he did know was that as soon as he fell asleep, he would probably be thrust back into boring village life.

Not wanting to leave the princess behind, he stayed awake until he swore he heard his name being called in another dimension, to 'WAKE THE FUCK UP!' Unwillingly, he was knocked out as his Light Realm self awoke.

Link looked lazily at Fado. Fado seemed to be slightly unhappy. "What's up?" Link asked.

"It's well into the afternoon." Fado informed him. "You were supposed to get to work a couple hours ago."

"Well, you know teens like to sleep in." Link pointed out.

"But not this late!" Fado sighed. "I know you're having trouble readjusting to the slow life, but seriously, shouldn't that mean you'd be up at 5?"

"Hey man, being the Hero who banished the evil Twilight creatures is tough work. Lay off for today. I haven't given you any shit until today." Link pointed out.

"Just don't make it a habit, alright?" Fado requested. Link nodded in agreement, he figured that he might be able to do that. Though his adventures in the Twilight might get in the way of that.

Anyway, because it was easily at least 3 in the afternoon, Fado decided to just give Link the rest of the day off. He spent his time practicing his sword maneuvers. Sometime later, Uli and Rusl approached him.

"So, I heard you slept in today." Rusl teased. "Never thought I'd see the day."

Link laughed. "I know, right?"

"According to Fado, you were out until 3, and probably would have slept longer if he hadn't woken you. What happened?" Uli asked.

"It hasn't even been two weeks since the whole world was almost enslaved by evil Twilight monsters. Is it that surprising that I want to sleep in now and again after dealing with that crap?" Link questioned them.

Rusl smiled. "I suppose not. Doesn't mean we won't give you shit about it though."

Link rolled his eyes and resumed beating up the dummy in front of him. Rusl watched with interest while his wife left. Finally, Link stopped, turning around and looking at Rusl. "Want to have a quick spar?"

Rusl thought for a moment before leaving to get his sparing sword and shield. Soon, the two were facing each other, weapons ready. Link moved first, attempting a shield bash. Rusl blocked it and slashed, which Link backflipped away from. Deciding to be crafty, link put away his sword and shield, walking calmly to his opponent.

Rusl let his guard down, saying, "Giving up already?"

Link quickly put his hand on his sword, swinging it suddenly, performing the hidden skill 'Mortal Draw.' The sword smack the man, knocking him off his feet. He landed with a thunk and a groan. He chuckled as Link held his blade up to his neck.

"Smart. I didn't even think about that." He stood as Link withdrew his weapon. "You've improved. Enough to be a royal guard, I say."

Link chuckled. "I doubt it."

"Why don't you try though?" Rusl suggested. "You aren't going to readjust to the slow village life over here anyway. You might as well help out the princess."

Link stared sadly at the man that had raised him after his parents disappeared. He shook his head. "If Hyrule ever needs me again, they know where to find me."

Rusl didn't object, but still let out a sigh. "Just give it some thought." He patted Link's shoulder and left the area.

Link let out his own sigh. He just realized that in his sleep he lived in the Twilight Realm. His Hyrule life didn't need to become more action filled. Though that would justify if he slept in, and went to bed early, but something told him that he would have to get up at 5, and go to bed at a minimum of 9. No, he wasn't going to try that unless the princess herself came and bowed to him, begging for him to come and serve her. Otherwise, no way.

Having successfully worn himself out, Link ate some food and went to bed, wondering what crazy adventure would come happen tonight…

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**Just so you know, I don't really read this again after I've typed it and all that shit, so if you people would be so kind, tell me if I screw up anything, or something just don't make any sense until you've re-read it ten times. That would be very helpful. Thank you!**


	3. That's One Way To Ruin A Festival!

**Alright, here it is!**

**By the way... I kinda have no idea where this story is going, so after this little story point, if some sort of all out war don't occur because of what happens here, I would greatly appreciate hearing what you people would like to see in the story.**

**Also, tell me if you can spot the reference to a particular god-creature from a particular moon-based game. It's not that hard to find, but you never know.**

**Oh, and just saying, I don't know about you, but you might want to think about eating anything about halfway through... It gets a little gross.**

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Chapter 3

Link woke a little before the servant Twili came to abruptly wake the princess. With nothing better to do, he took to wandering Midna's room. He found it was extremely simple, only a bed and some other things lying around here and there. He stopped his sniffing when he heard the door open.

Link spun around, growling automatically at the servant that was about to wake his friend. The Twili stopped and raised her hands to the air, startled. She backed away slowly, and closed the door, probably bolting as soon as she was out of Link's sight.

Link chuckled to himself at the poor girl's reaction. He hadn't meant to scare the living daylights out of her, but he hadn't wanted her to wake Midna at such an early time.

A couple minutes passed, and Link figured that the servant would try and get the princess up one way or another, so he decided to do the job himself. He hopped up onto the bed and gently licked her cheek. Slowly, she awoke, and when she saw what Link was doing, she pushed him away, unintentionally throwing him off the bed.

Link jumped back up, and found that Midna had fallen back asleep. He laughed. Apparently, she had gone back into the mindset that she had while Link was trying to save the two Realms. When Link went to sleep as the wolf, on the colder nights, Midna would lie on his stomach, staring up at the sky. The morning afterwards, she wouldn't wake for any reason unless she was dunked in water, so Link often had to find a river to drag her into. Midna would then yell at him in annoyance and use her hair-hand to drag him into the stream with her.

With no water around though, Link tried to find another way to get her up. He decided that pushing her off the bed was the next best bet. He shoved his nose under her, which she flinched slightly at the cold, and pushed her off the bed. A loud thunk could be heard, and Link looked over the edge. Unsurprisingly, she just rolled on her stomach and resumed sleeping.

Link sighed to himself, climbing down. He stared at the sleeping nuisance, and with no way of getting her up, left the room. After wandering the area for a bit, he found the servant girl talking to one of the men at the meeting from the other day (Night?) Judging from his voice, it was the one that had called him a beast (Not that such a name was a surprise) and instantly hated him because he was from the light world.

Link and the servant made eye contact, and then the wolf walked over to her, nudging her forward. The girl got the message and followed him, telling the man that she would talk to him later. Link walked to a door and tried to remember if it was the correct one. Regardless, he went to open it. The girl said, "Hang on a second, don't open that!"

The door opened before it could be stopped. Standing there was a young female Twili that seemed to have been in the middle of changing. Link instantly knew he had been incorrect and lowered his head to the ground in embarrassment. He heard a shriek that was so high pitched, he was sure he was the only one who heard it, and the servant mutter an apology and the door closed.

"What was that about?!" The girl scolded at him. "Can't you read?! That door clearly read, 'Don't enter unless you want my husband to kick your ass!'"

Link wasn't sure what happened. He glanced up briefly to find that there was indeed a symbol on the door. It was unreadable by Link's standards though, so he at least understood why he had disregarded it. If only he had been aware that the Twilight Realm's written language was so vastly different compared to Hyrule's.

Link avoided eye contact with the servant, merely making a motion that asked her to follow him. Reluctantly, she complied.

After getting lost for a while, Link finally arrived at the door that he hoped to the Goddesses that it was the correct one.

"You want me to wake the princess?" The servant asked. Link nodded pleadingly. "And you drove me off earlier. Look at what you got for it." She smiled playfully, "You'd better be grateful that I don't plan on informing her of your little mishap that happened on the way here." Link looked at her in a grateful manner, knowing that Midna would probably unleash Hell on him if she knew about that.

The two entered and the servant performed her duty, waking the princess in an instant. Link stared at her in amazement. Link himself couldn't even get her to open an eye without effort, but she could just simply yell and the princess would be up in an instant. Her job completed, the girl took her leave.

Midna grumbled to herself about firing that woman as she rubbed her eyes sleepily and sat up. Link rolled his eyes, as she herself was aware that she had a tendency to oversleep, and probably hired the girl for the sole reason of avoiding that.

Midna stood, looking down at her friend. "I have the day off today." She informed him. "Every couple days I can't help but call off the meetings. So we can just do whatever we want now! Come on, we have some business to take care of."

Although the wolf didn't have anything better to do, he still felt as though he was being unwillingly dragged along as the princess sat on his back and directed his movements. It wasn't much different from the start of the adventure, where Midna was, admittedly, a bit of a bitch.

Soon, they were at the room that contained the Sol. Link looked at the imp on his back, confused.

"Don't give me that look, Link. Everything I do has a purpose," Midna said, floating off him, advancing to the Twilight Realm's equivalent to the Light Realm's sun.

'Right…' Link rolled his eyes. 'What purpose did you have every time you left me to die when I fainted in the middle of battle?' Regardless, he approached the Sol, turning back into a Hylian upon touching it, the Shadow Crystal forcing itself out of Link's body.

Midna stared intensely at the Shadow Crystal that floated before them.

Link looked at her, asking, "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Midna asked him.

"Thinking," Link replied.

"What do you know, you're correct," Midna sighed.

Link figured he would only annoy the princess if he continued to talk, so he instead left her to her thinking and sat down on the floor. He closed his eyes and laid his head up against the wall as he savored the moment of peacefulness.

Midna snapped, and the sound of something teleporting reached Link's ears, but he choose to ignore the sounds, even when she started to play with the things she had summoned. Eventually, the noises ceased, and the calmness returned for a moment. And then the by now half-asleep Link felt cold hands snake their way around his neck.

Popping his eyes open, he found Midna, now back in her true form, crouched beside him, staring at him in slight surprise. "I thought you fell asleep." She had stopped whatever she had been doing.

"I almost did, but then your cold fingers touched my neck." Link said. "What were you doing?"

Midna looked down at her hands, and Link tilted his head down to follow her gaze. She was apparently holding the chain that was now around his neck. At the end of it was a small pouch.

Midna finished hooking the chain around his neck, and withdrew her hands. Link grabbed the chain and held it up, inspecting the pouch.

After a minute of just inspecting the outside of the pouch, Midna grew impatient. "Are you going to open it, or not?!"

Link laughed at her, but nevertheless opened said bag. Inside, the Shadow Crystal was stored. Link looked up at Midna. "Why?" He asked her.

Midna smiled. "So that you can transform if I'm not around, duh!" She answered. "Now be a good wolf-boy and transform for me."

Link growled playfully at her. No matter what, she would always call him a wolf-boy. Anyway, he obeyed, transforming into a wolf. He sat down to watch the princess with interest and confusion as she summoned some tools and began whacking the Sol.

Eventually, a chuck broke off, the shape amazingly not far off from the Shadow Crystal's. The Sol now looked like it possessed a decent sized dent. Next, she summoned some more materials and began messing around with them. Soon, she was holding a small metal-covered Sol. Only a tiny amount was exposed on one side, and on the other was a metal ring.

Midna crouched down again and grabbed Link's right paw, putting it on. Link watched her attach it so it was symmetrical to the shackle on his left paw. Quite a while ago, Midna had offered to remove the shackle, as then he might be less feared among the stupider people that could believe he's just a really big dog, but he had grown used to listening to it jingle as he ran, and the slight tightness that was present, so he refused. Also, very few people even noticed the chain; they could just tell from his looks that he was in no way a big dog.

Now Link had a metal cuff on both front paws. Deciding to see just how well her idea works, he reached with his left paw to touch the small exposed part of the Sol, transforming back into a Hylian, with the pouch that contained the Shadow Crystal closed, but upon opening it, Link found that it was still snuggly secured inside.

"Wow, correct on the first try," Link teased her, as on more than a couple occasions, her ideas had disastrous effects.

"Shut up," Midna snarled. "It worked, so just be glad that you didn't blow up, and let's move on."

Link chuckled lightly, and then noticed Midna had just about left the room, so he ran for a couple feet to catch up. "So what's the plan for the rest of the day?"

Midna turned her head to look at him, and then winked. "We have a festival to go to."

Link's face lit up. "A festival?!" He had heard a number of stories about festivals that had occurred while the Ordan villagers were off on business in Castle Town, but he had never been to one himself, the one that was planned having been canceled when the castle was engulfed by the barrier. Not that Midna would have allowed him to stop long enough to enjoy most of the festivities anyway.

Midna nodded. "I heard you once say that you wanted to go to that canceled festival a while back. And, because we had a festival planned, until Zant showed up that is, we're having it now."

Link jumped up and down in excitement, like a dog that was expecting its owner to go throw it a Frisbee.

A couple minutes later, Link was dashing full speed through the palace to get to the marketplace the festival was being held at.

"Slow down, you dumb mutt!" Midna yelled behind him, desperately trying to keep up with him. It was too late, though, as Link burst through the gates and ran headfirst into the crowd, getting completely lost.

Link looked at the various stalls that lined the streets. There was so much that was offered, ranging from chest armor, to double helix swords, to masks that looked strangely like him. After a bit of wandering around, Midna caught up to him.

"Goddesses, you are so hard to keep track of." She complained.

Link didn't reply, instead picking up the double helix sword and twirling it around a little. The shopkeeper seemed impressed. "Not a whole lot of people care about swords these days. Other than that earlier invasion, which was resolved by a force that basically made normal soldiers obsolete, no one has any reason to learn how to wield one."

Link glanced at the shop owner, and then his selection of weapons. He didn't have a lot, which was understandable, as apparently they weren't in very high demand, and it was just a festival. "It's a little sad, when you think about it." Link sighed. "Though I guess in a way that's a good sign, but I still figured that people would want some."

"I know, right?" The shopkeeper agreed. "Well, if you ever need a sword, give me a shout, OK?" He handed Link a business card. "You know, I didn't ever think I would see a light dweller come over to this Realm. I heard rumors that the only link was broken when the princess returned."

"I found a way." Link told him. He looked around, and spotted Midna waiting by a wall, trying to not be noticed by the locals. He approached her. "What kind of currency do you have here?"

Midna raised an eyebrow. "I thought you would have figured that out a long time ago, whenever you smacked a pot and rupees came flying out."

"Oh, I was wondering about that. How come you use Hyrule's currency if your ancestors were banished such a long time ago? Wouldn't you have found some other resource that you would make into a new currency?"

"Actually, amazingly enough, the Twilight Realm holds a material that was close enough that rupees could stay the currency. I'm not sure how, but that's just some minor details that I'm not going to even attempt to figure out." Midna explained to him.

Link nodded. "Cool, I'm off to buy some stuff then." He ran off in excitement.

A minute later, the poor boy returned. "I don't have any of my things." He explained to the princess.

Midna couldn't help but laugh at him a little. She tossed him a couple hundred rupees. "Try not to go overboard now."

Link smiled and turned on his heel, running back into the crowd. He looked around, wondering what he should get. He had a couple hundred rupees, so money wasn't exactly a barrier.

The first thing he got was some delicious… edible something or other. He wasn't quite sure what it was, and he couldn't even begin to pronounce the word, but it was quite amazing.

Finding nothing else in that section, he returned to Midna, who was still leaning by the wall. "Not going to join in the fun?"

"No," Midna glanced at him, and gagged at the food in his hand. "Do you even realize what that is?"

Link looked at his food. "Not at all," he admitted. "Is it important?"

"I don't know, you tell me. Is an animal's brains something you enjoy snacking on?"

"Brains?" Link asked, suddenly lacking an appetite. Midna nodded. Link threw the foodstuff into a nearby trashcan. "Lovely, anyway, why aren't you going to join in?"

Midna shrugged, almost as though she wasn't entirely sure herself. Link grabbed her hand, pulling her along into the crowd.

At first, the princess was a bit uptight, but she loosed up a little when Link started to slurp down what he later found out was effectively flavored animal's vomit. After that event, the poor teen decided to not eat anything else.

After quite a while of wandering about the place, a young, strange, and kind of creepy (by Link's standards anyway) woman beckoned the two into a nearby tent. It was almost pitch-black inside, with only a small strip of light streaming in from an opening in the tent, and they had to rely on the woman's voice as she talked to navigate to wherever she wanted them to go to.

"It's not every day one sees the princess out and about." She spoke slowly, carefully, and softly. "Who's the young Light Dweller with you?"

"This is Link, the one who helped saved our Realm." Midna introduced him.

"'Helped?'" Link glanced at her silhouette.

"OK, he did the vast majority of the heavy lifting. Except for the real heavy lifting." Midna corrected herself.

"The real heavy lifting?" The woman asked.

"I had to warp all sorts of giant things, like a cannon and a bridge, and a molten rock. Makes him look like a wimp, really."

"I bet you can't even lift your weight." Link complained. "That was all magic."

"Indeed, but with it, I can still lift plenty more than you."

"Anyway," the woman interrupted their bickering.

Link glanced over to her. "Oh yeah, what is it that you wanted?"

The woman laughed a little. "I'm a fortune-teller. I'm really curious as to what the princess's fate is."

"Everyone wants to know that," Midna pointed out. "And I guess I'm a little curious as well."

"Very well," Link imagined the lady was smiling. "Come forward now."

Midna complied. A small shiny something or other glinted in the small river of light before disappearing. Link wasn't sure what it was, but he decided that it wasn't important and waited for the fortune-teller's news.

She gasped, and it sounded a little fake. "I see…" Link could almost see her smile evilly as he got a horrible feeling of foreboding. "Your death."

Midna gasped as Link heard the oh-so-familiar sound of a sharp object slicing through flesh. Midna's silhouette collapsed, and Link jumped into action, changing into a wolf and sinking his fangs into the woman's shoulder. The lady let out a yelp of pain and flailed until Link was thrown off. He got up and changed back into a human as the lady moved to attack Midna again. He swiftly kicked the girl in face, sending her flying to the back of the tent. Link growled at her in hatred.

The woman growled back, and launched her weapon at Link, who couldn't see anything without his wolf eyes. The weapon, a kitchen knife from the size and weight of it, stabbed Link in the shoulder, though the chainmail under his tunic softened the blow dramatically. Link ripped the knife from his shoulder as the lady bowled into him, wrestling the knife from his hands.

Soon enough, the knife was digging into Link's stomach as it was pushed in more than hard enough to break right through the protective chainmail. Link screamed in pain when the woman brutally ripped it out, and watched to see if the boy would dare get back up. He did, but was kicked back down. The sudden pain caused him to cough up blood and immobilized him for the moment.

Satisfied, the woman moved back to Midna, who was struggling to get back. Link stared helplessly as she kicked the princess back down. Link pushed himself back up and grabbed the woman's wrist before she could plunge it into flesh. "Never count me out," he told her, taking the knife from her hand and pushing her to the ground. He stomped on one of her wrists and stabbed the knife through her hand, causing her to scream in distress and flail around, no longer having the strength, or the rational thinking, to remove the blade that pinned her to the spot.

The assaulter dealt with, Link moved to Midna's side. "Are you alright?"

Midna grunted in response. "I think I'll live."

Link smiled. "Good."

There were some noises from outside as people noticed the screams emitting from the woman. Guards entered the scene, asking, "What's going on in here?!"

Light flooded the area, and the first thing the guards noticed was their princess laying on the ground with a cut wound on her stomach.

Midna turned her head to look at the woman that attacked them, about to say something along the lines of 'arrest her.' The words caught in her throat, though, as she looked at the lady's face. Link turned to look as well, and found it was the same servant that was the only one that knew anything about getting the princess up in a timely manner. How they had missed that detail was a mystery.

Momentarily shaking off her confusion, Midna ordered the guards to arrest her with was done swiftly. Slowly, she sat up and waited a moment. All was silent, and there were no longer the noises of the festival outside, meaning that it was probably disrupted by the fight. "Well, that's one way to ruin a festival." Link laughed at her nonchalant-ness.

Midna glanced at Link, and then took the time to inspect his wounds. "You're getting out of practice." She commented. "Seriously, I think we're going to have to replace your tunic."

Link looked down at his outfit. "It's not that bad."

"Yes it is. If anything, we're going to have to dye it red, because your blood isn't coming out of that thing without a lot of effort."

Link waved it off. "We've gotten worse out of this thing."

"Not before dyeing the Spirit's Pond a lovely shade of red. Goddesses, was he pissed."

Link cringed at the memory. "That'll teach me to piss off Eldin." Slowly, he started to stand, but with the adrenaline no longer fueling him, he felt lightheaded and just ended up falling to the ground, slowly slipping out of consciousness. The last thing he heard was Midna desperately calling to one of the guards to get help…

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**Not bad, huh? Again, inform me if I make any mistakes, please. And _please _tell me if you have any ideas of where this story should go.**


	4. Starting To Recover

**Finally! That took a while, but hey, I have been just gotten TWEWY recently, and played the shit out of that, as well as suddenly having a sudden urge to play Kid Icarus: Uprising. If you remember, it was because of a sudden renewed interest in the game that this FanFic is about that this was born, and strangely, because of the sudden urge to of KI:U, I ended up making a FanFic about that series. Opps, talk about side-tracked.**

**Anyway...! Please tell me what you want to see! I mean, seriously people, this is going to be like ramming a horse cart into a brick wall soon! In other words, I'm not going to do more than hurt myself trying to come up with things!**

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Chapter 4

When Link opened his eyes, he was back in his tree house in Ordon. It was well past mid-day, so he figured he should get up. He didn't make it very far, however, before letting out a gasp of pain and lying back down. Tilting his head down to look at the source of the pain, he found bandages covering two wounds, one at the shoulder, and that other at the stomach. He didn't have time to figure out what was going on.

"Link…" Uli's voice appeared out of nowhere. Link's head jerked up to look at her. "What happened to you?"

Link glanced back at his chest. "I…" He stopped. Under normal circumstances, if he was wounded, he would rely on Rusl and his wife to patch him up. So just simply saying he was attacked was definitely not an option, nor was telling them of his late-night adventures in another Realm. The only thing that really confused him was why his wounds carried over to his other body. "I don't know."

Uli studied him for a minute, clearly aware that he was lying to her, but kept her mouth shut.

"Ah, you're finally up, huh?" Rusl approached them. "Fado went to go yell at you to get up, but then he found you lying there on your bed, bleeding to death. Gave us quite a shock. How'd you manage that?"

Link averted his eyes, not willing to answer. "I… You wouldn't believe me."

Rusl looked at the boy he had raised sadly. Then he brightened. "You were just taking on a giant horde of monsters again, weren't you? Like that one time that you arrived, covered in blood, at our doorstep not long after the children were kidnapped. Training to get to be one of Zelda's guards, eh?"

With no other way out of the situation, Link decided to just roll with the story. "Yeah, that's it. I didn't want you guys to find out. I remember your reaction when you first found out I had to travel all through the land of Hyrule to save it."

"How many were there?" Rusl asked him. "How many did you manage to slay?"

Link tried to think of a reasonable number that he could beat without the Blade of Evil's Bane. "I'd say… 20 moblins. A couple had spears, and they poked at me until I got these wounds."

Rusl chuckled. "I assume you gave them a good thrashing in the end though?"

"Well, there was a pile of bodies at the end," Link answered with a small smile.

Rusl laughed. "No one can best you, can they?"

"Nope, I'm undefeatable!" Link said proudly.

Rusl gave him a slap on his uninjured shoulder. "Even so, if you get hurt again, don't hesitate to come to us, alright?" Link nodded. "Well, we best be off. If you need anything, you're just going to have to suck it up until we get back."

"I'm blaming you if I end up dying then," Link told him with a completely serious face.

As Rusl and Uli walked away from Link's house, Uli muttered to her husband, "He's hiding something, isn't he?"

Rusl nodded sadly. "Indeed. I get the feeling that he doesn't care about the princess at all. She could keel over this very moment and after getting over the initial shock, he probably wouldn't care in the slightest. What happened? He feels so closed off now."

"Maybe it's just a phase," Uli suggested hopefully. "All teenagers are a little rough around the edges, maybe Link's just a little slow in that regard."

Rusl sighed. "I hope that's all it is."

Link stared at the ceiling, unmoving. Sadly, he had been able to hear the whole exchange. He didn't even notice that he had become closed off since he returned, but now that someone mentioned it, he had. Slowly, he rolled onto his side and curled up into a ball as best as he could without hurting himself. He closed his eyes and awaited the night to come so he could return to the Twilight Realm, where he actually felt like he belonged, as out of place as he was.

He unwillingly let out a small sob. He hardly belonged in the Light Realm, not after the shit he's gone through, but he was way too out of place to truly live in the Twilight Realm. Why did the Goddesses have to make it this difficult?

As he was anxiously awaiting the night to come, but didn't have anything to do, time passed all too slowly.

Eventually, Rusl and Uli returned to force some food down his throat, and at Link's request, spent some time keeping him company until night finally fell. When they finally left, he closed his eyes and awaited sleep.

Link woke up to find himself back in the Twilight Realm. Noticing something using his uninjured shoulder as a pillow, he tilted his head and found that it was Midna. Not that it surprised him, really. Unable to move and not able to wake her, he was once again stuck lying on a bed staring at a ceiling.

Eventually, after an unknown time had passed, the princess stirred and drowsily lifted her head off his shoulder. Seeing he had awakened, she looked away, presumably at the nearby clock that was facing at an angle that he couldn't see it, and muttered a quick good morning. Link chuckled and returned it.

Looking back at him, she asked, "How are you feeling?"

Link shrugged, at least as best as he could, replying, "I've been better after being wounded in battle."

Midna rolled her eyes. "Of course. We would always just teleport to a magical spring that would heal you before. Kind of sucks that it's not at our disposal now, but that really can't be helped."

"Yeah, that's true. Please tell me you at least have a potion lying around to get me back on my feet."

"Link, even if we did have some, I wouldn't give it to you. It's better if you heal naturally."

Link groaned. "But it's so boring doing nothing!"

"Well, you'll just have to suck it up, won't you? Seriously, everyday you'll have to listen to me complain, so at least you won't be that bored."

"Why would you be complaining?"

"Hello? One of my servants attempted to murder me!" Midna reminded him with an annoyed look on her face, gently placing a hand over her bandaged stomach.

"Oh yeah," Link muttered.

"Yeah," Midna growled. "So now I have to deal with deciding her fate, understand why she did it, figure out if she's actually from the neighboring tribe that I believe secretly wants me dead, and the list just goes on. But she's one tough nut."

"Why would anyone want you dead? Sure, you're a little snarky, but you certainly aren't Ganondorf-evil."

"You aren't involved in politics much, are you?"

Link shook his head. "I'm a ranch hand," he reminded her.

"Yes, well, to put it in a way you'll understand… Kill the leader, swoop in and steal the panicking land. Or you could just do what Ganondorf did, and kidnap the princess, force the land to surrender, and keep the princess as a figurehead while he rules in the background."

"Honestly, why is it that hard for you leaders to just get along?" Link sighed.

"If I knew the answer, do you think I would have almost gotten killed, multiple times?" She mimicked the sigh.

There was a knock on the door. "Are you awake, Princess?"

"Yes, I am, come in," she called out.

The door opened, and a male servant walked in, carefully balancing multiple plates of food, a book, and a couple drinks. Seeing that the man wasn't going to be able to hold onto it all much longer, Midna got up and relieved some of the burden. With a small bow, he retreated from the room.

Carefully, Link sat up. "So what do have?" He asked.

"Well, I got you a book to relieve some of your boredom when I'm gone, as well as food, obviously," she explained, handing him a plate.

Link cautiously poked the Twilight Realm version of food. "This isn't animal brains or barf, right?"

Midna laughed. "No, I was very specific about having none of that in there."

Link let out a relieved sigh and started to munch on something a strange purple color. "So what's this stuff?"

"I'm not really sure," she attempted with a shrug. "I never really cared what it was. If it wasn't brains or barf, I think I'd rather not know."

"You have some weird ways of doing things," Link commented.

"Same goes for you, Light Dweller," she smirked, to which Link rolled his eyes.

Sometime later, the food had been finished, and the plates taken away. Someone called out to Midna, telling her to get her lazy ass moving, and that they have work to do. She sighed, saying, "You heard him, I have to go." She placed the book in Link's hands and left.

Link groaned. He never was the type to read, and Midna knew it, and she still brought him a book. He preferred even a child's toy to this. Regardless, he got comfortable and started to read. Most of it was just boring history of the Realm, but after a while of skipping around, he found some interesting parts, namely battles between tribes using ever advancing technology. At the very end of the book, he realized that this was the newest version of a book that would grow as long as the Realm supported the shadow dwellers. What told him it was the newest was the page that introduced it, labeled, "Zant's Invasion."

His interest finally piqued, he started to read through it, wandering how much detail was included, after all, he had done a large number of seemingly random things (most of which were a little random, but most of them were to help out people in need.) He was quickly annoyed to learn, however, that even though Midna had given the writers all of her part of the story, it was heavily changed. It didn't bother him that she left out she was turned into an imp, but they did paint Link as incredibly stupid. Though Midna did guide him around quite a bit, he only went with it to save his friends until the end of the Water Temple, at which point he started to actually really care for his companion, and she stopped being so rude, and bothered to learn his name. The book seemed to suggest that he didn't even know the layout of his own home village too. He had wandered around blindly for a bit, but in his defense, Midna had been pushing him around the place, the animals had constantly stopped him to say, "Hey, Link, when'd you become a wolf?" (How they even figured out how to translate his Hylian name to chicken language, he'll never figure out.) And there were also a couple new places to explore in his new form.

Thoroughly annoyed at the changed facts, he skimmed through the rest, finding that they joked about his tendency to help people in need. Zant's personality was changed too. At the beginning, he seemed confident, calm, and collected, overpowering the two heroes with shocking ease. In the book, he was a psycho from the very start, probably for those who knew him before he resorted to Ganondorf's power, as Midna, and even Zant himself made it seem as though he was a little off the deep end even before he got his power.

Eventually, with nothing else to do, Link started to mutter to himself everything incorrect with the facts from the invasion. "Zant didn't seem crazy to begin with, they had no right to joke about the fact that I help people in need, and I most certainly am not an idiot!"

"Of course you aren't, why are you saying that?" A voice asked. Link jumped in shock, looking up, wanting to glare at her for scaring the crap out of him, but since she had just said that he wasn't stupid, he decided against it.

"Have you seen how wrong these facts are?" Link asked, annoyed, holding the book out to her.

Midna took the book from Link's hands and skimmed through. Her eye twitched. "Good thing I left out that Zant transformed me; otherwise I probably would have looked stupid as well. I'll try and find something else for you to for the next time I have to leave." She tossed the book onto a nearby table.

"So, what'd you do while you were out?" Link asked, moving away from the subject of book.

"Talking about the attempted murder," she explained, plopping down on the bed. Link didn't complain when she used his uninjured side as a pillow again.

"And you concluded…?" Link asked.

"That we still don't understand everything to come to a safe conclusion," she muttered unhappily. "We have a decent amount of evidence to suspect that she is from the neighboring tribe, but she isn't denying or admitting it."

"She'll crack eventually," Link assured her.

"I hope so," she muttered. She shifted into a more comfortable position and promptly fell asleep. Link, though curious as to what time it actually was, and having nothing better to do, quickly followed suit.

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**Tell me about mistakes and all that jazz.**

**AND SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, GIVE ME IDEAS, WORK WITH ME HERE!**


	5. Concerns

**OK, here it is, the next chapter!**

**I'm kind of dragged this out a little because I wasn't sure where I was going, but if no one tells me where I should go, this series will end.**

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Chapter 5

As it turned out, Link was stubborn. Like that was a surprise.

Though he was told numerous times to not get up, he did so anyway throughout the day. The poor hero was bored out of his mind, and Rusl insisted that he shouldn't even sit up so he could play with something.

Many times, Rusl entered the house to find a groaning Link at the bottom of the ladder that led to his bed, having just fallen upon attempting to climb down. Each time, Rusl would let out a long sigh and pull him back up that ladder and dump him back onto his bed. Then Link would complain that he was bored, to which Rusl would reply, "Maybe you should try reading."

Every time, Link would respond with, "I'm a man of action; I'm not going to be bothered to read a book about a hero that doesn't even know the true pain of saving the world. And I am certainly not reading about Hyrule's history." Rusl would become annoyed, and leave, and then the cycle would repeat.

After about the tenth time this happened, Rusl finally got fed up with dealing with the teen and left him there to get something. Link thought he was just going to finally leave him alone, though, so he just painfully stood and continued along his way. He exited his home, and promptly fell down the next ladder. Standing, he slowly made his way to the spring. The gate was locked for some reason, though, so he crawled into the secret entrance.

He was about to round the corner when he heard footsteps, as well as a familiar voice calling out to him. "Link!" He called out, and then in a lower voice, started talking to himself. "Goddesses, where'd he go? Epona's still here, so he couldn't have gotten too far, but he couldn't have gotten farther than the spring. But… he's not here. Maybe I should have realized that he needs to be tied sooner."

Link chuckled to himself after getting over the fact that Rusl had been planning on tying him to his bed. However, he wouldn't be able to, because he had never known about the secret entrance to the spring, and so Link had commonly used it as a hideaway when he didn't want to do something back when he was younger. The corner was wide enough for anyone under 4 feet tall to comfortably lounge in, and just above it was a fruit tree. There was a hole just above the corner that allowed anyone with long enough arms to reach for the nearby low-hanging branch that commonly harbored fruit in the spring. All of the village children were aware of this nice little spot, and also used it when they didn't want to do a task. Talo had a tendency to abuse this, though, and so Link constantly had to go find him, and avoid the adults so they couldn't find the hole.

Link was too big to properly hide in the hole, but he was more than happy to hang out on his stomach while waiting for him to give up and search somewhere else. To his surprise, the man instead unlocked the gate to the spring, and sat down before the water. Link sighed to himself, because he knew that if Rusl sat down before the spring, it would take quite a while before he got up to do something else.

Crawling to the corner, Link flipped around so he was on his back, staring up at the sky. He reached up and snagged a fruit, munching on it contently as he settled into a comfortable position. His acute, near wolf level senses detected another person approaching Rusl.

"What are you doing out here? I thought you were tying down Link," Uli said as she approached him.

"He's gone," Rusl muttered in reply. "I left to get some rope, and when I got back, he wasn't there anymore."

"He'll come back, don't worry," Uli reassured him.

"I know he will; that's not what I'm worried about," Rusl sighed. "He took on the burden of saving Hyrule, and it's changed him. I swear he's more like an animal at times. He still has the same personality, but he's lost his carefree nature."

"Well, that'll happen eventually to everyone. It just happened a bit faster to Link because of something we can't control," Uli said, attempting to make him feel better.

"Yeah, I guess, but still… It's obvious he's gone through some serious shit. And I worry about it. I want to help him, but he isn't making it easy. I think he's developing PTSD."

Link listened to Rusl talk about that for a bit before deciding he'd had enough, and started to crawl away to his house.

Once at his house, he climbed up to his bed, ignoring the pain. He flopped onto his bed. Looking out the window, he saw it was almost night time. "Finally," he muttered, closing his eyes, awaiting sleep.

* * *

As per usual, Link awoke in the Twilight Realm. He found that Midna was still asleep beside him. He smiled to himself, before shifting his position. It didn't take long for a servant to appear. Sadly, she was about as successful as Link usually was when it came to waking the princess. Laughing to himself, he said, "Why don't you try a bucket full of ice water?" The servant glanced his way, apparently confused. "Oh, right, you don't have water here, huh? Try dumping freezing liquid on her. That'll wake her up." The servant looked skeptical, but upon Link's urging, she left to obtain some sort of freezing liquid.

A couple minutes passed, and the servant entered the room again, this time holding a bucket. Link scooted to the edge of the bed to avoid getting wet. The servant, apparently knowing of the princess's wrath, muttered, "Forgive me." She dumped the liquid over Midna's head, running away as soon as the bucket was empty.

Midna jumped up in shock. She heard Link snickering, and glared at him. "I suppose this was your idea?"

Link stifled his laughs long enough to say, "Yeah. Please, don't blame the servant."

Link continued to laugh as Midna sighed and rolled her eyes. Though she sounded annoyed, the small smile on her lips proved that she actually found it to be quite amusing, after getting over the fact that she was freezing and soaking wet.

After getting ready, Midna ordered that a number of small, amusing little kid toys be delivered to Link to keep him entertained throughout the day. The two poor servants that were assigned the task were wholly confused, as, last they checked anyway, the Light Dweller that the princess wished to keep amused was a teenager at least.

After they delivered the toys, and Link, after thanking them, started to play with them, the duo were even more perplexed. Link noticed that they were staring at him as he played, and told them, "I'm very easily entertained. Except then it comes to reading books, because I find those an absolute bore."

The servants nodded dumbly and walked out of the room, less puzzled than when they received the order, but still quite baffled.

That day (night?) passed rather quickly for the hero. It didn't take long for Midna to return. She plopped onto the bed without hesitation. Link chuckled. "Another difficult day?" He asked.

Midna nodded. "Yeah, we aren't getting anywhere." With a groan, she said, "I don't want to think about it right now. So, how's life in the Light?"

"Not the best," Link replied. "My injuries appeared on my body in the Light Realm, so I'm stuck in bed there as well, and Rusl refuses to give me something to do besides reading." Midna laughed at him, for she knew he wasn't the type to read. "He seems to believe I'm developing PTSD too. I don't know how to deal with it."

"You seem to be holding together relatively well, considering," Midna commented.

"That's because being here helps to, uh, 'mellow' me, I guess," Link said, looking out the window, watching the floating particles. "I can't explain it; this place is just calming to me. I think it's the only thing keeping me from losing my mind."

"I believe that's why my ancestors were thrown in here. So that they'd get a chance to calm down," Midna said.

Link nodded. "I kind of wish I could live here. No more people pushing me to serve in Zelda's guard, and getting to dump freezing liquid on your head every day to wake you." Link smiled.

Midna snorted. "You're going to do that anyway." Midna's tone changed to a more serious one. "Why don't you tell them that you don't want to serve in Zelda's guard?"

"I have. Doesn't mean they won't stop wishing," Link explained. "Unfortunately, joining is about the only interesting thing I can still do down there that I haven't already done."

"Oh, cheer up," Midna told him. "At least you have a choice. From the moment of my birth, my fate was decided. Going on the adventure in the Light Realm was the best thing I've ever done."

"Makes normal life boring, though, huh?" Link smiled. "And you know, you do have a choice. Just find out how to get to the Light Realm, and then make it look like you killed yourself, leaving whoever you feel is qualified enough in charge in the form of a final message. Then come to Ordon and live with me."

"That's morbid," Midna said.

"Yes, well the author is running out of ideas," Link explained. "And if no one tells her how to continue this story, that's how it's going to end."

"Excuse me?" Midna asked.

"What?" Link asked.

"You just said something about an author?"

"I did?" Link asked, just as confused as Midna.

"Yes, you did. Five seconds ago, you said something about how an author's running out of ideas for a story," Midna told him slowly.

"I don't remember that," Link said.

"Clearly," Midna muttered. Letting out a sigh, she said, "Forget it; I must have been hearing things."

"That seems pretty obvious. If you ask me, I think you're just crazy, but that's just me," Link said, smiling as Midna grew mad and smacked him. "Careful, you're going to hurt me," he said with a pouting face.

"Oh, grow up, you big baby. You'll be just fine." Midna gave him another smack, just to show that he wasn't going to start bleeding.

Link frowned at her, to which she mimicked him. They both cracked up laughing. "What're we doing?" Link asked.

"Driving anyone that can hear us crazy," Midna answered.

"Watch out, it's a short drive," Link chuckled.

"You're horrible with jokes," Midna told him.

"Who ever said it was a joke?" Link asked with a straight face.

"Me," Midna replied, the look on her face radiating authority, somehow.

"Ok then," Link agreed with a nod.

"Alright, with that settled, go to sleep," Midna commanded with a yawn.

"But then I'll have to wait until night in the Light Realm to return, and it's boring over there!" Link pouted.

"Link, just…" She thought for a second. Reaching over, she grabbed one of the numerous toys littering the floor. She shoved it in his hand. "If your wounds carry over, then try and take this over with you."

Link looked at the object in his hand for a second as an idea formed in his mind. "If I can do that, then…" He jumped forward, pulling the princess into a hug. "I'm going to drag you over to the Light Realm with me."

"Link…" Midna muttered before smiling. "OK then, give it your best shot."

"You're saying that like I can control this," Link muttered, squeezing his eyes shut. Midna laughed at him before falling asleep. It took a while for Link to do the same, but because he was so excited, it took a long time for him to fall asleep…

* * *

**You heard Link! Tell me, before I cause this story to flop its way to the finish, with a crap ton of plot holes and the like!**


	6. An Unorthodox Meeting

**Well, this took way too long to get out. Not a whole month, though, so that's good. And I hope to have the next one up soon too, since I'm already, I'd say, about ankle-deep in it.**

**I don't know what happened to Rusl in the beginning. I'm blaming it on happiness.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Link opened his eyes that lovely morning to find that his experiment was only a half-success. The toy that Midna had shoved in his hands earlier was still there, but the princess herself was nowhere to be seen.

Unfortunately, this had the side-effect of making him want to bang his head against the wall in frustration. However, he decided that sounded painful, so he settled with vigorously playing with the toy gripped in his hand.

When Rusl returned, he threw the plaything under his bed, not trusting his caretaker to not steal it away. Especially since it didn't look quite the same as normal Light Realm toys.

"Link, we're going on a trip!" Rusl announced happily, gaining a groan from Link, who didn't want to even think about going anywhere.

"I'm still wounded, you know," Link pointed out.

Rusl nodded. "I know. That's why I'm going to shove some milk down your throat."

Link studied the man in front of him carefully. 'Am I dreaming?' He wondered.

Rusl proceeded to force Ordon milk and cheese down the teen's throat, and watched as its odd curing effects took place and sped up the healing process. Link almost choked on the milk and cheese, and while he was trying to get everything to go down properly, Rusl began to dig around for his clothes.

Link finally succeeded in not choking. "What is wrong with you?!" He asked.

Rusl glanced at him. "Nothing," he answered simply.

"Something!" Link retorted. "You almost choked me!"

Rusl threw Link's clothes at him. "Get dressed and be out in five minutes," he said, jumping down to ground level.

Link watched the man do this. "This is not normal. This is not normal at all." He muttered to himself.

* * *

Six minutes later, Link exited his house. Because of the odd way that Rusl had been acting, he took the time to retrieve all of his weapons, and even grabbed his Magic Armor, just in case. He had his nigh-infinite space pouches hanging from his belt, fingers twitching, ready to whip out anything needed at a moment's notice.

Rusl, who was standing outside the door, took notice of this. "You're late," he said first. "And you don't need all that. We're going on a trip, not dungeon crawling."

"You can never be too sure," Link replied. "Where are we going?"

"To Castle Town! That's all you get to know. The rest is a surprise," Rusl said.

"We're going to be staying at least one night at Telma's bar, and then we're going to the castle," Link guessed, his voice monotone.

Rusl's eyes widened. "That's oddly specific," he said. "But you won't know for sure until we're there."

Link yawned. He knew he hit the nail on the head with that assumption. He didn't say anything else about it, just climbed on Epona and got her moving, not slowing for Rusl, who was yelling at him to wait up, as he had yet to climb on his own horse.

Rusl caught up easily. "I was yelling at you to wait up," he said.

"Yes, well, I was aware that you could catch up in no time," Link replied. "And it's not like I'm going to get lost or anything. I know a good chunk of Hyrule like the Triforce on my hand."

"I'm aware of that fact. However, it's just downright rude," Rusl said.

Link didn't bother with a reply and fell silent.

Soon, they arrived at Hyrule Field. Surprisingly, some of Ganon's stupider minions were still alive and wandering the area. Link, used to their presence, ignored any that got in his way, allowing Epona to trample them, which she thoroughly enjoyed due to the fact that she possessed bad memories of when some decided that she appeared to be their perfect stead and jumped on without warning. Rusl was plenty more cautious, even after Link said, "They're harmless," while his horse plowed through them.

* * *

They arrived at Castle Town with plenty of time to spare, so they went down to Telma's bar. Rusl noticed his old Resistance friends at the table, so he wandered off to talk to them. Louise happily greeted Link, who responded with a pleasant 'hello' and stroking the cat's fur, which she enjoyed a lot.

"So, what're you doing here, Honey?" Telma asked.

"Ah, Rusl says that he won't tell me, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to the castle," Link replied. Telma nodded. "So, here's a funny story. Not even five minutes after I woke up, Rusl comes in and shoves milk and cheese down my throat, nearly chokes me, throws my clothes at me and tells me we're going on a trip." Telma laughed at him. "Glad you find it that amusing. I was so worried about his behavior that I bothered to bring my weapons and Magic Armor, just in case." To prove it, he pulled out his armor.

"Yes, he is a little nutso sometimes, huh?" Telma laughed. "So when you going to the castle?"

"He's still not admitting we're going to the castle to begin with," Link said, rolling his eyes.

"You poor dear," Telma said. Link wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. "If it makes you feel better, he's not much better with everyone else. I've been working with that guy for 5 years now, and I still can't figure him out."

"I've lived my whole life with him and I don't understand how he thinks!" Link yelled.

"I'm not that hard to understand, am I?" Rusl asked, hearing Link's shout.

"Yes, you are!" Link yelled back. In a quieter voice, he muttered, "I'm not sure if I want to understand him anyway."

Telma snickered at Link's comment. "It would be wise not to, Honey."

* * *

After about an hour of relaxing at the bar, Rusl told Link it was time to go. "Now will you inform me where we are going, even though I have a decent idea anyway?"

"Nope," Rusl responded. He then blindfolded Link.

"Ok, this is unnecessary," Link said, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"It totally is necessary," Rusl replied, leading him out.

Link sighed and gave up, calling out a goodbye to Telma before leaving.

* * *

Five minutes passed, and Link had been pushed around a number of times by people that probably expected him to move out of the way, clearly not noticing that he couldn't see. Link could tell he was almost at the destination when he stopped bumping into people, and Rusl kept whispering to someone, who whispered back. He was also aware when he stepped onto a material that was much nicer than the stones outside.

"Alright, we're here," Rusl announced.

"Finally," Link sighed, ripping off his blindfold. Unsurprisingly, he found himself staring at the face of Princess Zelda. "Ah, good morning, Princess," he greeted probably too casually.

Zelda laughed. "But it's not morning."

"That's not true," Link replied. "It's morning somewhere. If it isn't, tomorrow is going to be severely disappointing."

The princess chuckled at his humor. "I guess that is true." Moving onto business, she said, "So, you're here about-"

Although he was aware it was rude, Link stopped her. "I was dragged here by Rusl. I knew I was coming to the castle, but he refused to even admit that, let alone tell me why I'm here." Rusl painfully elbowed him for his impoliteness.

Zelda smiled, not minding being interrupted. She stopped being so formal, saying, "You've hanged around Midna too much, you know that? It's not often that someone stops me mid-sentence unless they're angry."

Link chuckled. "Yeah, she doesn't exactly act like the royalty that she is." Meanwhile, Rusl seemed absolutely lost. Partly because of Midna, and also because they were acting as though they'd been good friends for years.

Zelda took notice of this. "You're lost, aren't you?" She asked him.

"Just a little," Rusl admitted.

Zelda nodded. "Let's move back to business then. Link, Rusl here thinks that it would be a good idea for you to…" she looked down at a letter she held. "'Get off your lazy butt and join the Royal Guard.'"

Link snatched the letter from Zelda's hands. It read in cursive, which confused Link because he didn't know Rusl knew cursive,…

Dear Princess Zelda,

I know you are aware of the boy named Link that saved Hyrule not even a week ago. However, I fear that his talents are being wasted here in Ordon, and think that it would be a good idea for him to get off his lazy butt and join the Royal Guard.

The letter continued, but Link stopped reading. He glared at Rusl. "You say that like all I do is sit around and do nothing all day."

"Well, you do seem lazier than before," Rusl replied.

"Yes, because using the Gale Boomerang to retrieve small objects in high places counts as lazy," Link retorted.

Rusl sighed. "Just give it a shot, will you?"

Link mimicked Rusl's sigh. "Fine." Link turned around to face Zelda, muttering, "I wish I could still change into a wolf so I could scare the living daylights out of him."

Zelda laughed. "Link! That's not nice!"

"I think it's reasonable!" Link said.

"I'm not saying I don't agree with you," Zelda replied, and amused look on her face. "Now than, returning to our previous subject, you have to pass a test."

"Reasonable," Link said with a nod. "What do I do?"

"Although I know you are an accomplished swordsman, I have a feeling my men won't like some teen waltzing in here and suddenly being one of my top guards. Therefore, I am going to have you duel some of my best men."

Link nodded. "Easy," He said with confidence.

Zelda laughed at him, and led him down to the training area where a tournament was about to be held. "The guards had a tournament planned to see who the best of them is. So, I figure we can squeeze you into it." Zelda walked over to the man who had the whole thing planned out. Upon hearing her request, he seemed surprised, but fit Link in anyway so as to get on the princess's good side.

Link was going to be in the last match. Apparently, there had been an odd number of participants, so some guy couldn't participant until Link was shoved in.

Zelda looked at his clothes. She shrugged. "It's not the best, but you can survive in what you're wearing, if we can't find anything better before your first match. You're not that wimpy." She glanced at the sword and shield strapped to his back. "I think your weapons are acceptable for this."

"Princess?" A voice asked from behind. "What are you doing here, if I may ask?"

Link glanced at the man. He was a burly man with a Hylian Shield and a steel sword strapped to his back. Link figured that he was the Captain. He was kneeling to the princess, as to be expected.

"I'm here because this young teen wishes to be a part of the Royal Guard, so I've signed him up in your tournament to assess his abilities," Zelda replied.

The Captain got up and wandered over to Link, looking him up and down. "This scrawny thing?"

"No, the other scrawny thing," Link replied sarcastically.

"I don't like your sass," the Captain growled.

"So?" Link retorted without a care.

"So, I'm going to be your boss if you make it, and you won't be having that attitude with me if you value this job!" The Captain yelled.

"Joke's on you, buddy. I didn't even ask for this, nor would I care if you fired me. It's only because I've saved Hyrule and have nothing better to do that I'm even here." Link replied. The Captain growled and stalked off. Link noticed Zelda and Rusl staring. He shrugged. "What? It's not like I have anything to lose, and that guy was being rather rude."

"You still shouldn't have talked to him that way," Rusl said.

"I think you picked up one too many things from Midna," Zelda commented.

Link shrugged. "Whatever. Come on, we have to get me some armor."

Knowing there was no arguing with the teen, the two followed Link on his sidequest for armor that didn't make him indestructible like his Magic Armor.

* * *

**I don't know why, but I felt like making Link incredibly sarcastic and sassy to the Captain. I find that it fits, though. For some reason.**

**Also, thanks for FINALLY telling me how to continue! I'm still sorting out what exactly I want, but so far I have that Link can't take living objects from one realm to another, but he can take non-living things, hence why he had the toy.**

**Also, though I feel it is an overused idea, I'm going to try and throw in the whole, 'fix the Mirror!' plot in this. I won't tell too much about it, but there is also going to be a sub, yet not quite sub, plot going on in the Twilight Realm relating to the whole sub-plot that began with Chapter 3.**


	7. Tournaments And Invasions!

**Hey there, awesome people. How're you?**

**Here's a chapter!**

**I'm going to be pacing the tournament as much as possible by having a battle a day, and then moving onto to the super serious Twilight stuff.**

**Also, this chapter ended up a lot more swear-heavy than the other ones. Oops. You've been warned.**

* * *

Chapter 7

"And the final match for the first round," the announcer, well, announced, "is between the new guy, Alton," said male waved nervously at the cheering crowd, "And newcomer, here to see if his skills are good enough for the Princess's Royal Guard, Link!" The crowd was mostly silent as they stared at Link, who was cloaked, for effect, and people could only see the tip of his wooden sword poking out.

Alton looked at his opponent nervously. If the cloak was meant to scare his foe, it was working. He couldn't even see the guy's face.

"Are you ready?" The announcer asked the two fighters. Alton smiled nervously and nodded. The announcer turned to Link. A small smile formed on his face, which was unseen, as he moved into his fighting stance. "I'll just take that as a yes..." the announcer said slowly. "Alright, GO!" He yelled.

Link shot forward, the hood of his cloak flying off as he slashed at Alton. Alton let out a shriek of terror at the newcomer's ferocity, ducking behind his shield. Link smacked the shield and then jumped back, awaiting Alton to move. The poor guy was stunned for a second before seeing that Link wasn't moving. It took him a second, but then he realized the guy was wearing a mask that vaguely resembled a wolf without any color. The only thing he could see of the boy's face was the piercing blue eyes.

"Why are you wearing a mask?" Alton asked.

"Because, if no one in this whole tournament can remove this," Link pointed at his mask. "Then I don't think you deserve to see my face. Also, I think the princess will have to rethink how she's training you. This isn't just a test for my strength. This is also to see if you _amazing _guards are really as good as you claim."

Alton gulped. "I just got this job, dude. I'm not as _amazing_ as you seem to think I'll be. At least, I'm not as good as the others."

"Then you'll be a nice warm-up," Link said, dashing forward and swiftly knocking Alton to the ground, pointing his sword to the boy's neck.

"He seems pretty smug," many people that were watching muttered, not sure if they wanted such a child watching over the princess.

"He has a right to be, having saved the kingdom, but I do think he's taking it a little far…" Rusl murmured upon hearing the crowd's complaints.

"It's been a while since he's been allowed to show his stuff, though, I guess it's reasonable," Zelda commented.

"It's been two weeks, princess," Rusl informed her.

"Yes, but when was the last time he showed off? I believe I heard that he commonly showed his skills to the children before the incident, correct? And the whole adventure, only one other being was with him, so he's finally got a chance to show the world that he's improved."

Rusl took note of the fact that she said another _being_, rather than person, and figured he had to ask about that later.

Meanwhile, Link was declared the victor of that match.

He strolled over to Rusl and Zelda. "I hope they all aren't that easy to beat," he said, removing his mask.

Zelda shook her head. "No, Alton is a new recruit, who doesn't have a lot of experience. The rest of your opponents are a lot braver, tougher, smarter, and have a lot more experience. They all survived being attacked by the Shadow Beasts."

Link shrugged. "So? I've had to beat down 5 of them, all the while outsmarting them, and taking down specific ones first so they don't revive the others."

Zelda stared at him blandly. "Just don't get anymore cocky; otherwise you'll be in for a huge surprise."

Link shrugged again and proceeded to leave the area, for the tournament was done for the day.

* * *

Link walked into Telma's bar, Rusl following behind him. "Ah, good evening Honey!" Telma greeted. "How was your time at the _mystery destination?_" She joked.

Link chuckled. "It was the castle. Rusl apparently thought that I should 'get off my lazy butt and join the Royal Guard.' So now I'm in a tournament consisting of the best guards to see if I'm good enough to join them, though really I find that I'm just testing them to see if they're up to snuff."

"You're good enough, I know it. But the Royal Guards, they aren't chickenshit like the rest of them," Telma warned while Rusl sent her a look at said, 'That's what I've been telling him' and returning to the table where his friends still were, though most of them had fallen asleep.

"Try telling that to the guy I took down. He didn't even take the offensive," Link said, taking a seat at the bar and pulling out his mask.

"Whatya got there, Honey?"

"I threw together a mask to hide my face. I told them that if no one can knock of the mask, then they don't deserve to know my face. I like to call it motivation so they don't go easy on me," Link said with a smile. "Everyone thinks I'm just some cocky brat that doesn't know his place. I was even sarcastic to the Captain."

Telma raised an eyebrow. "So you're getting them riled up so they don't go easy on you? You know, as you rise through the ranks, they'll get serious anyway."

"I want them serious from the beginning. I don't want every one of them to hold back because I'm new, or I'm just a teen that doesn't know how to take punishment." Link frowned at the thought, before pulling out a tool kit from his pouch.

"What're you doing?" Telma asked.

"Like I said, I threw the mask together at the last second. I still have to add color and the markings," Link answered, getting to work putting on the designs that he had seen on his wolf form so many times in his reflection.

"Those are some pretty markings, Honey. They remind me of a wolf that tried to come into the bar once. I only briefly saw if before freaking and tossing it out, but it still looks eerily similar."

Link smiled to himself. "Yes, I ran into the wolf once as well," he lied. "A pretty thing he was. Poor guy had been imprisoned, so I set him free. I trust he didn't cause too much trouble?"

Telma shook her head. "No, he just scared the living daylights outta me. Knowing that he's a friend of your makes me regret throwing him out without a thought. A friend of yours is a good person, or in this case, wolf."

Link nodded. "Yeah. I don't think you'll be seeing him again, though. Something happened to him, probably one of Ganon's minions got to him. I don't know what happened to him."

"Shame, I'm sure he was a good guy," Telma commented. Link smiled and nodded, putting on the finishing touches on his mask and adding on blue earrings. "Earrings? Why?"

Link shrugged. "I don't know. He just had them when I found him. So I figured I should add them onto the mask." Now finished, he smiled happily at his work. Leaving the mask, he pulled out his wallet, flicking a red rupee to her, which she caught easily. "Wanna get me some food? I'm starving."

Telma wandered away in search of something that would please the Hylian, who, unless he's out in the middle of nowhere or lacked sufficient funds, was rather picky about specific foods, which he made known to the woman rather quickly.

When she returned with some milk and a cucco leg, she found the teen half-asleep, slumped over. She nudged him, making him jump in surprise. He had a strange feeling that something was horribly wrong, and that something was trying to drag away his consciousness…

Seeing that Telma had some meat and a drink for him, he thanked her and took it from her, gulping it all down in seconds. He pulled out an orange rupee, handing it to her before retreating to the room that he occupied whenever he stayed. It was much better than the rooms that she generally offered.

A king sized, top notch bed, alongside its own bathroom, complete with a decent bathtub and shower. Not to mention the price of staying was nice and small. 100 rupees could pay for a whole week, easy. The only reason it wasn't constantly occupied was that you first had to prove to Telma that you weren't, as she puts it, 'complete chickenshit', meaning that literally every average guard didn't even know of its existence unless they saw Link enter it. Link proved himself after helping her get Prince Ralis to Kakariko. Sadly, he didn't get to use the amazing room until after Telma returned because the Resistance weren't exactly kind to him then.

Oftentimes, after Link retrieved the Master Sword and Midna could take a physical form in the Light Realm, she would sleep on one half of the bed, which at one point, caused Link to wonder how she slept in his shadow before he took down the Lakebed Temple. He never managed to get a straight answer out of her, though, which only made him more curious.

Throwing his gear clumsily to the side, he promptly collapsed on the bed, finally allowing his consciousness to be pulled away.

* * *

Link awoke in the Twilight Realm to find he was being half-dragged and half-carried by a frantic Midna. Everyone around them was running around in a panic. A large boom echoed throughout the area. Stumbling up to his feet and out of her grasp, he asked, "What's going on?!"

Midna turned around swiftly to look at him. "There you are! Took you long enough!" She yelled. "Come on, we have to get out of here!" She grabbed his wrist and ran.

"Seriously, mind telling me what's happening?!" Link yelled after a minute, and another large boom.

"Isn't it obvious?" Midna growled. "We're under attack!"

Link froze at the news. Looks like that servant that tried to kill her had been on some pretty official business, and didn't just have some petty grudge. Midna gave a swift tug on him to get him moving again.

They moved for another couple minutes before a thought occurred to him. "The Shadow Crystal!" He yelled.

Midna stopped dead in her tracks. A second later, she shook her head. "We can recreate its effects somehow. We don't have time, Link!"

"That's true, but I don't think I should be running anywhere near an active battlefield without at least a shirt on!" Link countered.

Midna cursed under her breath and turned around, dragging Link in the other direction. They arrived back at the room, and Link threw on his upper clothing, and then transformed into a wolf to give the tired princess a moment of rest.

Link ran, following Midna's directions, to where there was a secret passage made for escape for when they were inevitably attacked. Why the princess didn't escape through it when Zant attacked was a mystery. About halfway there, they found their way blocked by 5 of the enemy, who didn't know that Midna had taken another form.

"Hey, you there!" One of them yelled as Link tried to run past them. Seeing that they didn't instantly attack, Link knew they didn't know Midna was with him. So he stopped and turned around obediently, finding that Midna had jumped into his shadow at one point or another.

"Hey there, boy," one of the men said soothingly, figuring he was talking to a mutt. He reached forward and gently placed his hand on Link's head. "Do you know where the princess is?"

Link glared at him, but did nothing. The man that had stopped Link approached. "Hey, mutt," he said with an irritated tone. Link glanced at him. "Where's the princess?"

In response, Link growled. The soldier, who, for the sake of convince, will be dubbed 'Bob' for the time being, that had his hand on Link's head turned to other man, who will be dubbed 'Joe'. "Yami, you have got to be kidding me," 'Bob' let out a groan towards 'Joe', whose name is apparently actually 'Yami'. "I've told you, animals take time to get through to, you can't just demand things from them and expect them to obey." 'Bob' turned to Link again. "Isn't that right?"

Tensely, Link nodded.

'Bob' smile under his helmet. "See? He responded to me in a non-threatening way, rather than a glare or attack."

Yami growled. "I am your superior; you do not talk to me like that!" He yelled in a rage. "Fine, you talk to the damn dog! Stupid animal lover."

'Bob' let out a sigh and turned his attention back to Link. "Ignore him, he hates animals, so our personalities conflict. So, do you know where the princess is?" Link shook his head. 'Bob' let out another sigh. "Alright, thanks boy. I personally think it's better if you didn't know where she was anyway." Link looked at him questionably. "To tell you the truth, I don't even know why I'm in this job."

"Hey, Kage!" Yami yelled. "Get your ass moving!"

'Bob', who was actually named 'Kage', growled. "Find the princess, boy, and take her away from here. I don't want anyone to get hurt," he told Link, standing up.

Link had an uncanny knack for knowing when people were good or not, and at that moment, he knew that Kage was actually not bad. Link whimpered, wanting him to join them, rather than risk his life trying to kill someone he didn't want to hurt. Kage turned back to him, yelling, "What did I say? Go!"

Link looked at the soldier sadly, before he turned and ran. He stopped again when he heard Yami yell at him. "Get back here!"

Link didn't want to be stuck in the castle anymore, but he forced himself to stop. He turned his head to look at the man. His eyes widened as Yami drew his sword. "Oh, so you understand what this means?"

Kage jumped forward. "Stop, what do you think you're doing?"

"I'm eliminating him, what does it look like I'm going?" Yami asked bluntly.

"Why?" Kage asked.

"Because I can," Yami answered simply.

Kage wasn't sure what to make of this. Not wanting the wolf to get hurt, he said, "We don't have time. We have to find the princess before she gets away!"

Yami scoffed. "I thought you didn't want to hurt the princess. Now you're telling me to go kill her so this mutt can be spared?"

Finding that he wasn't sure what to do, he stumbled over his words to find an answer.

Link, fed up with this whole thing, attacked while Yami was distracted, stealing his sword and transforming back into a Hylian. All 5 members of the squad stared in shock.

Link laughed, knowing their expressions despite there were helmets covering their faces. "Yep, I'm a Light Dweller. Shocked?"

"I couldn't care less," Yami said, shaking off his shock and drawing a dagger while the rest of the squad, except Kage, prepared to attack.

"Hey, your name's Kage, right?" Link asked. Kage slowly nodded. "You seem like a good guy. Why don't you come with me? I'm going to keep Midna safe from harm."

Poor Kage was unsure what was happening. First he was talking to a wolf, then the wolf turns into a Light Dweller, and then he's asked to assist helping the princess of another tribe.

While Kage was trying to figure out what to do, Yami and his squad attacked. Link had little difficulty fending them off, but didn't want to linger in the castle any longer. He knocked out 3 of the squad, and was left dueling Yami, who had earned the higher rank, as he was actually somewhat close to a decent match for Link.

"Kage, I need your answer today!" Link yelled.

Kage was brought out of his thoughts. He drew his sword.

"Kill him!" Yami yelled.

"Why would I bother doing that?" Kage asked.

"I'm your superior!" Yami yelled.

Kage shrugged. "Not anymore." He stabbed his sword through Yami's leg. Turning to Link and ignoring Yami's cry of pain, he removed his helmet and smiled. "At your service, Sir. I can get you a lot of troops that have the same mindset as me to join us."

Link smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Kage. Now let's get out of here." The two turned and ran.

Midna jumped out of Link's shadow. "Are you sure you can trust him?" She whispered.

"Have I ever been wrong?" Link asked.

"A number of times, but I think that's beside the point," Midna answered, earning a pout from Link.

Kage glanced at Midna. He frowned and asked, "Who are you, and where were you earlier?"

"I was in his shadow," Midna answered, watching as Kage nodded in understanding. "As for who I am, I'm the Twilight Princess."

Kage stopped running for a moment to quickly bow to the princess. "I didn't know you could transform your appearance. No wonder no one found you, even with 30 teams searching."

"No, you're all just incompetent," Midna replied. "I only took this form 20 minutes into the attack."

Kage laughed nervously, feeling rather useless . "Oh," he muttered.

"Now come on, we have to get moving again. The exit's not far from here," Midna said, lightly pushing Link to get him moving again.

* * *

The three found the passage and slipped through it. It was a little cramped though, and Link and Kage had to crouch to move. "It's a little suffocating," Link muttered.

"I know. It's supposed to slow down the enemy should they find it," Midna explained.

They arrived at a small room filled with long expired snacks and cots. "The hell is this?" Link asked.

"The building team built this part for their convenience, since the tunnel's pretty long, but they didn't do anything with their crap afterwards," Midna informed them.

The three sat down on the cots for a short break. "Hey Kage," Link said to get his attention. "How many are there like you?"

"Maybe, 50, I guess," he answered.

"Better than nothing," Midna muttered.

Link nodded. They fell silent for a couple minutes. Then a thought occurred to Link. "Hey, Midna, can't you just teleport us out?"

Midna shook her head. "We've placed a variety of magical seals around the place to prevent teleportation and other various magical spells so shit like what happened when Zant invaded can't happen again. Unfortunately, we can't get away for when stuff like this happens. We're nearing the border of it though, so once we're out, I'll teleport us to the village that's been prepared for this sort of thing."

Link nodded and got up. "Come on then, let's get there before anyone finds out we went this way."

Kage nodded and stood. Midna let out a groan and floated off the cot. Link turned into a wolf so the tunnel would be less of a hassle, at which point Midna dropped onto his back, and they set off.

* * *

**There we go! Tell me of errors, again.**

**If you know where I choose Yami for the evil guy's name, GO YOU! (I love Okami!)**

**And if you know what Kage means, then you must have watched/read Naruto.**

**Those characters aren't all that important, other than for the plot, so, ya know, I'm not going to go to in depth with them. They're there, but they aren't going to be a main part of the whole plot. Though Yami probably is going to have significance in the whole 'invasion' sub-plot.**

**By the way, you people need to tell me some good Twili names. I want to stick with something that you would generally expect, you know, unusual names that aren't common for the light world, and are kind of like Midna's, where as it's derived from midnight.**

**(I just realized I said that Link paid with a silver rupee, when that's actually 200. It's fixed now, of course. I must have been thinking Majora's Mask.) **


	8. Bob, Solka, and the Mirror!

**Here you go! (I really need to start working on some of my other projects!)**

**Anyway, if you would be kind enough, please come up with some good Twili names. Seriously, it took me forever to continue this because I couldn't come up with a good name for the person that I settled for naming Solka. I actually just took Sol/soul and added -ka at the end and called it good because I couldn't come up with anything else. Ugh.**

**Also, errors. I'm not reading through this again, so please help me.**

* * *

Chapter 8

Just outside a small town near the border, that had no more than 20 people living there, three beings materialize. One Twili, whose uniform betrayed that he was from the neighboring tribe that was attacking, one wolf, and one imp, who sat on the wolf's back. The poor villagers were understandably scared at the newcomers, fleeing into their homes and slamming the doors shut before they were even done materializing.

Link hadn't expected the warmest of welcomes, as Midna was not in her real form, but he didn't expect for all the doors to be slammed shut before his eyes materialized again. Blinking in surprise, he changed form to his Hylian self. He turned to Midna, who was now floating. "I don't think they trust us."

"No, whatever gave you that impression?" Midna asked sarcastically.

A man opened his window, yelling, "Go away, we don't have any money! We're a small town; we don't have anything to give!"

Midna changed to her real form. "Is that any way to treat your princess?" She shouted back.

For a moment, there was silence. Then, "You can't be the princess! Why would she come here?"

"To get away from the death and destruction of everywhere that's being invaded, duh!" Midna yelled.

"Did you seriously not plan for this?" Link asked. "I mean, you have a secret tunnel leading out of your castle in case of an attack, but you never figured out where you'd go, and you figured you'd just wing it? In a land of magic where anyone could impersonate you? Actually, why haven't they already done that?"

"Don't give them ideas!" Midna hissed. "And I never had time to plan! I got as far as getting the tunnel built, and everything went to shit afterwards." Calling out to the villagers, she asked, "What do I have to do to prove I'm not evil, or whatever term you feel fits?"

There was another silence. Then, "You can't be the princess! The real one wouldn't be seen with a member of the tribe that's attempting to murder her!"

"You have a fair point," Link yelled back. "But how do you even which tribe is attacking?"

"We have a Hawkeye!" The man replied. "And I have seen in clear detail which tribe attacked the nearby town. Plus, there is only one neighboring tribe."

Link turned to Midna. "What do we do? I don't think they'll trust Kage. Also, how do they have a Hawkeye?"

"I don't know," Midna sighed. "And you'll talk to them. You're not of the attacking tribe, nor are you 'attempting to impersonate the princess'." She made air quotes with her fingers.

Link nodded. "Alright. But if any attacking forces arrive, warp out. Don't wait for me, OK?"

Midna nodded in agreement. "Alright," she yelled. "I'm sending Link, the little green boy, in. He'll chat with you, and we'll wait out here. Deal?"

"Fine!" The man barked.

"Oh, and if he walks out with a hole in him, you're dead meat, got it?" Midna shouted.

"Got it," the man squeaked.

Link entered the home, looking around, noting a young woman and her child were cowering in a corner. At least, the woman was cowering. The child, who couldn't be more than 6 or 7 years old, was staring at Link with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Alright, boy!" The man barked.

"I think you're scaring the woman," Link pointed out.

"Leave my wife outta this!" He yelled.

Link held up his hands. "Alright, alright. I don't mean you any harm."

"That's him, daddy!" The child suddenly spoke up. "That's the odd white-skinned creature in green that saved me when I was a monster!"

Link glanced at the child, vaguely recognizing the child as one of those he saved by exposing the light of the Sols to. "I remember you now," Link said, a small smile forming on his face as he crouched to be at eye level with the kid as he rushed up to him. "You were one of those that I helped when I was on a mission to take down the bad guy enslaving you."

The child nodded. "Yeah, I remember! I first saw you looking around the area, and you almost attacked one of the cursed people, but a shadow stopped you, and then you walked away. Later, you emerged from a building with a Sol. And then you ran around saving people from their curses!" He smiled.

Link smiled, looking up at the father. "Not many light dwellers have come to your realm, you know. Except criminals, of course, but I'm assuming you had some way of dealing with them. Please, believe me. My name is Link, and I saved your realm from Zant. I never tell a lie, so please believe me when I say that the princess out there is the real deal. We fled from the castle when it was attacked, and somehow, we recruited a member of the other tribe to assist us along the way. Apparently Midna is a horrible planner, though, something that I'm surprised I wasn't aware of until now, and so here we are, requesting your aid. Test us any way you feel is necessary. We mean you no harm."

The man studied Link for a moment. He then turned around, saying, "Come with me, boy."

Link followed the man as he walked outside after retrieving a kitchen knife in case of an attack, which made Link twitchy, not wanting it to be used. He called to Midna and Kage and led them into a vacant house, probably to get them away from his wife and child. Midna and Kage explained their stories, which ultimately seemed to frighten the man, possibly because he didn't know if they were lying or not.

There was a knock on the door, and another man entered. He looked at the three, and then turned to the first man, speaking calmly. "Why?" He asked simply. "These people haven't attacked you yet. They won't harm you."

The man pointed at Midna. "This one says she's the princess! But when she arrived, she was an imp!"

"I was using that form until I could get away from the attack," Midna explained. "After all, do you honestly expect me to parade around normally when dozens of people are storming my castle, desiring my head on patter?"

The second man nodded. "Reasonable."

The first one turned to Kage. "And what about him!? He's from the attacking tribe!"

"I've told you, I don't wish harm upon this land. My parents forced me into the army; I had no choice in coming here," Kage told him.

Though the second man had a skeptical look on his face he nodded. "I don't think we can trust you completely, young man, but your explanation makes some sense."

Kage nodded. "I understand. I didn't expect to be greeted anywhere in this land with smiles, as long as this goes on. So long as you don't lock me up in a dungeon for the rest of my days, I think we'll get along just fine."

Finally, a finger was pointed at Link. "And him?"

"You heard from your kid. I'm a light dweller, who, for some odd reason, has two separate selves, one here, and another in my realm. I saved your people from Zant," Link replied.

The man looked helpless as the second one spoke. "Forgive him; he's twitchy about the invaders."

Link nodded. "We understand. These aren't exactly happy times."

The man smiled. "Good. I'm sorry you were doubted. I wanted to go and see who you were when you arrived, but my wife was begging me not to. I'm the mayor of this town, and my name is Solka. The paranoid one is Bob."

"Bob?" Link asked, attempting, and somewhat failing, at stifling his laughter.

"Yes, my parents heard somehow that Bob is a common light world name, so they thought because we don't live there that 'Bob' could be considered a unique name," Bob explained, clearly grumpy about having to explain the origins of his name for what was probably the 50th time in the past 10 years or so. "Needless to say, I plan on getting my name changed someday, and I've refrained from naming my own child such a ridiculous thing."

"The funny thing is, Bob isn't a very common name anyway," Link said, putting on a straight face.

"Good to know," Kage said uncaringly. He turned to Midna and Link. "Ok, so what now? We can't just hide here."

Midna nodded. "I don't plan to."

Link shook his head. "Oh no you don't. I'm not going to allow you to risk your neck, especially since when it's you they're after."

Midna glared at Link. "And that stopped me how when the Twilight covered your world? Just because they're after me doesn't mean they can take me down. These are my people, Link. I refuse to just sit around and let them be harmed simply because you want me to do my best Zelda impersonation and do nothing while someone else does all the work."

Link could see there was no arguing with her. Letting out a sigh, he said, "Fine. But I want you to be in your imp form at all times, just in case."

Midna nodded. "Fair enough." She turned to Solka. "So what do you have in the way of weapons?"

* * *

An hour later, Link had been equipped with a rusty sword, as well as an equally rusty shield. While they were basically useless, he figured it would work until he could find that swordsmith that he met at the festival. Looking at the business card he still had on him, the group was able to determine that he should be only one town down, which was a really lucky break. And so, Midna and Link set off. Kage figured he could help defend the town if invaders arrived, so he stayed behind.

As Link and Midna walked, Link smiled. "This feels familiar, huh?"

Midna nodded. "It does. It's nice to get out and travel; even with the thought of the kingdom getting destroyed looming over us."

Link nodded, looking to the sky. "Yeah, only, this time, we're in a different realm for the whole of it, and I can't tell the time."

Midna looked to the sky too. "Oh, that's easy. I'll teach you tomorrow. Basically, it's almost night time."

"Oh," was Link response. "Crap. I have a tournament to be at in the Light World tomorrow." He let out a groan. "I don't want to think about it. They're all such weaklings."

Midna rolled her eyes. "Oh, get over it. Maybe while you're there, you can tell Zelda what's going on and get her help."

Link nodded. "Yeah, I know, but I don't want to leave, in case something happens here."

Midna shrugged. "I can handle any situation that arises until you can return."

Link agreed, though he was a little paranoid. They set up camp and fell asleep.

* * *

Link awoke to Telma knocking on his door, telling him it was time to go. Link let out a half-asleep grunt to confirm for her that he was awake and was going to get ready. After getting dressed and throwing his cloak on, he walked out, giving Telma a red rupee in exchange for some breakfast. Once he was done, he slipped on his mask and walked out to the castle.

At the castle, he got plenty of dirty looks from just about anyone that cared about the competition, and many people whispering that they couldn't wait for 'the smug bastard' to be taken down in the next round. Link ignored them and headed for Zelda's study, where he figured she would be. Of course, she was there.

Zelda looked up. "Link!" She greeted happily. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh, technically," Link replied, unsure as to how to explain his situation.

"I'm… not sure what that means," Zelda told him.

"I know. It confuses me too," Link admitted, launching into the story about his adventures in the Twilight.

When he was done, Zelda had a look of shock on her face. "So you… have another body?"

"I think," Link answered.

"And Midna's tribe is currently being decimated by another tribe that wants her dead?"

"Yep," Link confirmed.

"Well, shit," Zelda swore, causing Link's eyes to widen.

"You swore!" Link yelled, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"Is it that surprising?" Zelda asked.

"You never even said anything close to vulgar the whole of the Twilight invasion, so yes!"

"Clearly you weren't around when I was first locked up," Zelda said with a chuckle. "I was chucking so many swears at the guard that I think he was actually physically wounded."

"That doesn't sound very lady-like," Link commented.

"Clearly you don't know Midna then," Zelda laughed. "I mean, I was bonded with her for half your adventure, of course I'm going to pick up at least some of her ruder aspects."

"You weren't bonded with Midna when you were chucking swears at the guard, though. And seriously, swearing? That's what you decided you wanted to pick up? I don't even hear her swear all that much."

"It wasn't my fault. I didn't want to start chucking swears around."

"Sure you didn't," Link said sarcastically.

"Oh, go fight your fucking match," Zelda demanded.

Link laughed at her and obeyed, heading down to await his match. When it came, he was faced with a more experienced soldier. Stepping out onto the battlefield, he smirked under his mask. "I hope you'll provide a decent challenge for me!" He called out, causing the crowd to yell various annoyed things. At least one person yelled, "Go to Hell!" Link was annoyed at that particular comment, but he chose to not visibly react to it.

The announcer stepped in and shushed the crowd. "And now, if our third match of the day, Fado," the crowd screamed at him, yelling to kick Link's ass. Fado responded with a smug grin, acting as though he had already won the match. "And Link!" The crowd booed, but again, Link didn't visibly react. "And… start!"

Neither participant moved a muscle, both sizing up their opponent. As soon as Link had enough of standing still, though, he started to calmly walk forward, sword and shield put away, almost as though he didn't want to fight. Fado was understandably confused Link's simple actions.

"What, don't you trust me?" Link asked jokingly. "No, of course you don't. And for good reason." His hand flew to his sword's hilt, and he drew it with incredible speed, attempting a Mortal Draw. Fado let out a high-pitched surprised shriek that sounded rather undignified as he raised his shield to defend.

Link's sword bounced off the shield; leaving him wide open for a counterattack, but Fado instead ran away in fright. Link recovered, and yelled, "I was wide open. Why not attack? You'll never win if you can't exploit an enemy's weakness!" Fado didn't respond, instead taking the time to recover from his earlier shock. "Was my attack that surprising? I was just simply testing you, and you're already afraid of me?"

Link dashed forward, striking the man's raised shield, almost knocking it out of his grasp. Link jumped away, yelling, "Give me a challenge, dammit!"

Fado recovered, letting out a loud battle cry that sent the crowd into a frenzy, rushing forward to attack. Link smirked happily, rushing forth as well to meet him halfway. The two swords clashed.

Link let out a small grunt of effort as he attempted to overpower Fado. "Finally, some decent competition! But not good enough!" He pushed with all his might, sending Fado stumbling back and knocking his sword out of his grip. Link pointed his sword at Fado's throat. "Not bad," he praised. The announcer proclaimed Link the winner, and he relaxed his stance, putting his weapons away. "If you attacked while I was open, you would have done a lot better, you know," Link told him before leaving.

* * *

Before Link left the castle, he returned to Zelda's study. "Hey," he greeted as he walked in.

"Ah, Link, I have some exciting news," Zelda said.

"And what is that?" Link asked.

"This," Zelda replied, holding out a small object.

Link picked the object up, finding the Triforce symbol in the middle. And the material… "No way, is this…?"

"A part of the Mirror of Twilight?" Zelda finished, excited. "I believe so."

"But how? I mean, we watched it shatter into a million bits before our eyes. I think a couple particles even got in my eye," Link commented.

"I don't know. Maybe it's the Goddesses work. All I know is that it seems that parts of it are reforming right when we need it."

"I'm assuming I have to travel Hyrule again to find them?"

Zelda shook her head. "No, not until the tournament is over. The Group will be searching in the meanwhile."

"Damn," Link swore in annoyance.

"I know, you're annoyed. But don't worry; there are only 2 more matches. I don't have that many guards, after all.

"15, soon to be 16, guards still feels obsessive," Link commented.

"You never be too careful," Zelda replied.

"Whatever you say, dear," Link said sarcastically. "Well, I'm off to cut some grass for rupees. Maybe I'll stumble along a piece of the mirror as I go."

"Try not to step on it and break it," Zelda joked.


	9. That First (Liberated) Town

**I am soooo sorry. I didn't realize that I had taken damn near two months to make this. Technically one, but it was updated last on the 8th month, on the 31st, but still the 8th month, and now I'm updating on the 10th month. I'm sorry. Soooo sorry. I try to avoid that, I really do. Unfortunately, I've made one too many stories. I have 6 in progress now, 5 if you don't count BiT, which is always marked as complete because it's a bunch of oneshots that will probably never end.**

**It's almost 10 right now. I think the only reason I haven't turned off my computer as of now is the damn addicting Rhythm Thief songs that I'm listening to at the moment. It's solely because of this damn addicting game that this took so long. (Did I mention it was damn addicting?)**

**I'll try to not take so long with the next chapter. No promises, though.**

* * *

Chapter 9

Link didn't find a mirror piece on his quest for rupees. As a matter of fact, he couldn't find any rupees. It was like the Goddesses wanted him to _work_ for the money. An absurd idea, I know.

Anyway, after a full hour of searching, and having nothing to show for it in the end, Link gave up and went to the library. He got an idea while cutting grass that could hopefully help in the Twilight if such a thing actually existed, and should he pull it off. He found what he was looking for in an advanced potion making book, which he quickly checked out. Next, he went to the Castle Town branch Malo Mart. There, he bought everything that the book said he required. Finally, he bought a pot to mix the concoction in and went to Hyrule Field, just in case his experiment turned deadly and blew him up.

Ever so carefully, he brewed the potion, and tested it on a couple sleep-deprived livestock at the entrance of the town. Satisfied to find that its effects took hardly two minutes to work, and didn't blow up the world, he returned to Telma's bar to check his equipment.

He found that his arrow quiver was full, and everything else was in perfect working order. After a moment of thought, he decided to just bring his whole pouch with him. After all, if he could drag along a toy from one realm to another, why not anything else? And so, he spent the rest of his day preparing for whatever was lying in wait in the Twilight Realm, and dodging questions from curious spectators.

The day was over and Link had checked his equipment a large number of times (He stopped caring about the exact number after the fifth time) to make sure that he definitely had everything in his bag. He ate his dinner, attempting to not look like he was in a hurry, and then promptly retired to his room. Once there, surrounded by silence, Link stopped to wonder how he even took the items with him across the realms. He certainly didn't have a single clue how he managed it the first time with the toy that was currently lying under his bed back in Ordon.

Figuring he'd just go for it, he curled up in his bed, hands resting on the pouch beside him like a child's stuffed animal. He sent up a small prayer to the Goddesses, requesting that the pouch would follow him to the other realm.

When Link awoke in the other realm, he found his pouch beside him. After thanking the Goddesses, he briefly wondered if it was smart to drag all of his equipment with him. After all, you never know when you might need the strangest of objects in the strangest of places. Then again, the Twilight Realm was definitely a strange place that probably had the strangest places to use the strangest items, so maybe it was wisest to have them with him.

Turning to Midna, he found that she was already waking up. Letting out a fake gasp of surprise, he asked, "You're waking without needing someone to dump you in a river? Who are you, and what have you done with Midna?!"

Midna offered him a blank stare in response. Letting out a yawn, she asked, "Are you kidding? You know I wake up early if something important is going on."

"You've only done that once," Link replied, slightly annoyed. "And that was when the cannon to the City in the Sky was being fixed and you were getting incredibly impatient. You woke me before the sun had even started to rise!"

"And the damn thing wasn't fixed until two days later," Midna muttered. Realizing they were not on a topic that they should have been on, she switched subjects. "So, do you have a brilliant plan yet in case the whole town is crawling with soldiers like they have a horrible bug infestation?"

Link nodded, pulling the bottle with his self-made potion inside. "This is a sleeping potion I've made myself."

"Oh, joy," Midna muttered sarcastically, scooting a couple feet away, remembering the last time he attempted to brew himself a potion. She was rather glad that she had been hiding in the Hylian's shadow that day, because otherwise she probably wouldn't still be alive. Link was only alive because he had been wearing his Magic Armor just in case it blew up in his face. Which it did.

"Calm down, it's not going to explode," Link told her. "I've tested it, it works. I followed a book's instructions exactly."

Midna looked at the bottle he held skeptically. "Whatever you say," she muttered. "So what does it do, anyway?"

"It puts the victim to sleep for hopefully at least an hour in mere minutes after entering the bloodstream," Link answered.

"Why bother with putting them to sleep?" Midna asked.

"Get them to come to our side," Link replied. "Also, I would feel horrible if I killed them."

Midna shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's get going."

Minutes later, they arrived at the town. They weren't all that surprised to learn that it had been taken over. After checking the area with her magic from behind a tree so as to not be spotted, Midna told him, "There are 20 enemies."

Link laughed. "This feels familiar, huh?"

"Oh yeah, the hidden village with the woman who we needed the book from to get to the sky city," Midna remembered. "Yeah, I guess this is like that. The layout of the town is eerily similar, too. This time, though, refrain from breaking any windows. I'm sure that the people won't like having their windows broke, even if you are trying to save them."

Link rolled his eyes. "Did you really think I would do that in a town that's actually populated by more than one person and her twenty cats?"

"You do smash a lot of pots…" Midna pointed out. "You seem to enjoy breaking things, so I wouldn't put it past you."

"Hey, I did that for the rupees," Link countered.

"You couldn't have just checked inside? It's not like we were on a time limit, considering how you took your sweet time with everything _but_ that and stabbing enemies in the face."

"What about the temples? I got those done quickly," Link countered.

"Just attack," Midna demanded with a sigh of annoyance.

Link nodded and pulled out his Hawkeye, bow and quiver. Taking an arrow, he dipped the head in the potion he made. Turning around and glancing beyond the tree he hid behind, he stared at one of the soldiers who were outside. Putting on the Hawkeye, and preparing to fire, Link said, "When I shoot, run to the other side of the village. The whole left side is surrounded by trees, right?" Midna nodded. "Good."

With that, he said, "Watch me fly," and loosed the arrow, and watched for a moment as it struck the target in an unarmored part of the leg. He followed his companion upon hearing the man's scream.

On the other side of the village, Link and Midna watched as all of the soldiers came running to see what happened to the one that was wounded. All of the forces were immediately on edge upon seeing the arrow. While trying to get the harmed man into a building, he fell limp as Link's potion came into effect. Instantly, everyone thought he was dead. It took them a whole minute to realize that they should check his pulse.

"These guys aren't very bright, are they?" Link asked.

"Not really," Midna replied. "I've met their prince. Apparently, they couldn't have been bothered to give even him a proper education. I swear he's about as stupid as a teenager."

Link coughed awkwardly. "I'm technically still a teenager."

Midna raised an eyebrow. "So?

"So… Effectively, you're calling me stupid."

"Oh," Midna muttered, realizing that she just called her friend 'stupid'. "I meant like the common teenagers that you ran into in Castle Town," she told him in a hurry. "Their talk about how everything was, as they put it, 'swag' _kinda_ made me want to strangle them."

"Nice save," Link chuckled. Link turned back to the soldiers, who were starting to search the area where they suspected the arrow to have come from, which, amazingly enough, was actually where he had shot from. He prepared another arrow, and shot the farthest target that he could see.

The soldiers had a similar reaction to the first time, only the second time, they were a little quicker to check his pulse upon his fainting.

"18 to go," Midna informed him, watching them drag away the body.

Link smirked evilly, a look on his face that Midna hadn't seen since he had to shoot down the Bulbins in the Old Kakarico. He had found it to be incredibly fun to stealth kill everything that moved during that time. Midna couldn't help but chuckle at him as she jumped into his shadow to watch without distracting him.

Barely five minutes passed, and Link had successfully knocked out every one of the soldiers. Midna emerged from his shadow. "I don't understand why you enjoy stealth killing everything like that."

"It's because the goddesses seem to think that I only want attack with a sword. So I find it hilarious when I murder something before it's aware that I even exist. That's not something you can do with a sword," Link responded.

"Alright then," Midna replied, slightly disturbed as she turned to look at the villagers, who were slowly emerging from their homes, looking at them fearfully.

"Princess?" A little girl questioned as she approached the two, despite her parent's protests.

"The one and only," Midna said.

With that, all of the other villagers relaxed slightly and approached them.

"What are you doing here?" A young male asked.

"A swordsmith lives here, correct?" Link asked.

"You talking about me?" Someone asked, pushing his way through the crowd that had formed.

"Yes, you," Link said to the swordsmith.

"I remember you, you were at the festival," the man said. "What do you need?"

Link pulled out his rusty equipment. "I don't think these are going to last me very long fighting well-equipped enemies."

The swordsmith hardly glanced at the sword and shield. "Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed. "I'm assuming you came because you need something that will actually work?" Link nodded. "Very well then, come to my shop. Amazingly enough, the enemy soldiers had little interest in my wares. Oh, and by the way, my name's Frito."

Link nodded. "Nice to meet you, Frito. Just give me a minute. I don't know how long my potion will last, so we'd better tie up these soldiers before they awaken."

Frito nodded and directed their attention to where his shop was located before wandering off in that direction.

While Link, Midna, and the male villagers were dealing with the unconscious soldiers, the women were chatting. Link was listening at any point that he was within earshot to see if he could find out anything useful.

"I wonder what's going on," one said.

"I don't know," another muttered. "I mean, one moment, we're going about our daily routines, and then the next, we're being invaded. I'm just glad that my son wasn't hurt."

"But wasn't your husband wounded?" The first one asked.

"Yes, he was, but it's minor, and he says that he'll be up by tomorrow. Most of those soldiers were surprisingly nice, other than the fact that they invaded our homes and ate almost all of our food."

"I wonder what's going to happen to them," a third person chimed in.

"Hopefully, they'll rot in a dungeon somewhere," a fourth person said.

"But Gimlet seemed so kind. That seems like such a horrible fate for someone like that," the second said.

Link walked out of earshot, approaching another soldier, making a mental note to keep an eye out for a 'Gimlet.' As he was dragging the next soldier over to the pile where all of the soldiers were being thrown for the time being, he heard, "That one that was taking up space in my place, Mot, was it? He was such a…" Link couldn't make out any more of the women's words because he walked a couple feet too far, but he figured that Mot wasn't a nice guy, judging from the angry sounding mumbles he heard. He made a second mental note to watch out for Mot.

After a couple minutes, the soldiers had been tied up and thrown in the mayor's basement because there wasn't anywhere else to throw them. Link approached Midna and asked, "Did you hear anything useful?"

Midna nodded, and told him of what she learned. Link then informed her of the knowledge that he gained.

With that out of the way, the two made their way over to the swordsmith's shop. Inside, it was decorated with just about every sort of sword imaginable, and then some. Link whistled, impressed. "Unbelievable," he muttered. "Why haven't you hired this guy as your guard's personal swordsmith?"

"I didn't know he existed," Midna replied. "If I had, I would have stolen a weapon before fleeing the realm back when Zant invaded."

"I don't think he would have taken kindly to you stealing some of his wares," Link said.

"He probably wouldn't. Doesn't mean I wouldn't I done it."

Link shrugged. "You got a point." He picked up a sword a little shorter than the Master Sword and gave it a light swing.

"Hey, be careful! If you break anything, you're buying it!" The swordsmith warned.

"That's the policy with just about every store," Link said. "I think I understand it by now. And how do you expect me to break it if it's reinforced steel?"

"You'd be surprised, boy," the swordsmith told him.

"OK then…" Link muttered, putting the sword back and picking up another, giving that one a swing as well.

A couple minutes later, Link had tried out every one-handed sword in the shop, finally settling on one that was significantly shorter than the Master Sword, but felt almost perfect in his hands. Looking around for a minute in confusion, he finally asked, "Do you sell shields?"

The swordsmith shook his head. "No, that's my brother's business."

Link stared at him with a blank expression. "Let me guess, he's halfway across the country, isn't he?"

"Nah, he's just another town over. I think that place was invaded as well, so watch out," he warned.

"Oh, thank the goddesses. If he was across the country, I would've…" Link trailed over, but moved his hands in a strangling motion to show his frustration.

"I'm assuming something similar has happened before?"

"Not quite, but I've had to travel the country for a number of things, which is a pain, even when I could warp most of the way." He sighed. "I guess that's our next destination then…" He groaned.


	10. Second To Last Battle

**Sorry this took so long. A whole month. Geez.**

**Anyway, the end of this chapter is a little abrupt, but I don't particularly care.**

* * *

Chapter 10

Link and Midna were to set off for the next town the next day. With that thought in mind, Link couldn't help but groan and think, 'This is going to take forever!' Clearly, he wasn't particularly happy about it. But first, he would have to return to the Light Realm to continue to beat up some more poor, pathetic so-called 'royal' guards.

Before they left the sword shop, Link spotted the double helix sword that had been on display at the festival. After a moment of thought, he picked it up and swung it around, finding that it would make a nice backup weapon, and bought it. For the rest of the day, he practiced with it. That is, until Midna came over to him and informed him that the poor people he had shot were awake now.

The two went down to the basement where the soldiers resided. Their armor and weapons had been stolen away from them, and the vast majority of them looked positively miserable. The rest looked pissed and yelled insults at Link and Midna until Midna couldn't help but kick one of them in the side. Looked around them, Link asked, "Which one of you is Gimlet?"

A small and kind of pathetic looking one meekly raised his hand, letting out a small whimper. Link nodded, satisfied, and took off his chains, replacing them with handcuffs before leading him away.

In the Mayor's dining room (the closest they could get to an interrogation room), the three sat down. "W-what do you w-want?" The poor man stuttered out.

"We want you to…" Link paused for effect, which only really scared the crap out of the poor guy, "join us."

Gimlet paused for a moment to think. "E-excuse me?" He asked.

"You aren't a bad person, Gimlet. At least, not according to the gossipy housewives of this town," Link explained. "We could use someone like you. We're gathering anyone who possesses a kind heart; that wants this war to end without the death of the princess and this land to be taken over by your prince."

"Why should I?" Gimlet asked, skeptical.

"Do you know Kage?" Midna asked.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of him. Something about a slacker and a no good softy."

"He's a kind-hearted soul that helped us escape the castle when the invasion began," Link explained. "He's helping us out and watching one of the villages for us at the moment."

"Can you help us?" Midna asked.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt. I didn't want to get dragged into this to begin with."

"Then you'll help us. If we gather enough people from both sides of the conflict, we'll surely be able to put a stop to this."

Gimlet nodded grimly. "Then I'll assist you. And I convince everyone else to help too! Mot will probably not cooperate, neither will Shi, but everyone else will probably fight for who is clearly the strongest side here."

Link nodded happily. "Then let's get working!"

The last couple hours of the day were spent convincing the other soldiers to join Link's side. The majority of them did, but Mot, Shi, and a couple others were positively appalled at the betrayers and threatened death upon them and their families.

By the time that Midna told Link it was night, half of the soldiers were outfitted and patrolling the town on a night watch. The others were resting peacefully on the couches and floors in various houses.

Link suddenly realized he had never been told how to tell the time. To that, Midna shrugged and pointed to the sky, pointing out various specific ways the Twilight moved almost akin to how the sun moved in the Light Realm. Only it was more accurate to compare them to clouds that moved rather oddly alongside the time. Link was understandably confused by the end of the explanation, and found that he learned almost nothing.

"I'm not sure if I'm just not getting it or if you're just that bad of a teacher," he commented. Midna was not amused and punched him on the arm, telling him to go to bed. Link shrugged and did so, making sure he had his weapons pouch with him.

* * *

Back in the Light World, Link prepared for the second-to-last battle. Before doing that, he decided to chat with Zelda.

"Morning!" He greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, Link," Zelda replied. "How's the Twilight Realm doing?"

"We've gotten some of the troops to turn traitor and join our side. I hate movingly slowly, but we're getting somewhere. Did you find any more shards while I was gone?"

Zelda shook her head. "No, sadly. It's almost like someone hid them."

"Well, this is the Goddesses that likely made it so the mirror could be put back together. I wouldn't put it past them to hide the fragments just for the kicks. I think it's because of them that I couldn't find any rupees in the grass yesterday."

Zelda laughed. "You know, I don't think it's normal to find rupees in grass anyway. But… I really wish they wouldn't hide things for great importance like this."

Link nodded. "They're a pain like that sometimes. Well, I have to go beat up some poor soul that's probably way too confident in his ability to beat the shit out of me. Have fun."

* * *

As per usual, Link got yelled at on his way to the match. He ignored them, but was shocked at their creativity. What's a 'toroid'? Ah, at least they weren't being as generic as physically possible.

Out on the field, Link stared at his opponent, who he swore was no more than a year or two older than him. "Good morning," he greeted lazily.

"Hey," the man greeted simply.

"It's time for the second to last battle in this tournament!" The announcer shouted. "Are you ready?" The crowd shouted happily. "Alright! For this match we have Link fighting Ico!"

"Ee-co?" Link sounded out the name in confusion, having never heard that particular name.

"Yes," Ico replied. "That's my name. Why do you sound so confused?"

"I haven't heard that one yet," Link told him.

"You shouldn't be surprised by someone's name, dude."

Link shrugged. "Sorry, I was raised in the country. I only got out about a year ago."

Ico had a look of shock that almost caused Link to start laughing hysterically. "You were living in the middle of nowhere your whole life, and you've made your way to this spot in the tournament?"

"Well, to be fair, no one's actually given me a challenge yet. I trust you won't hold back?"

Ico shook his head, getting into his battle stance. Link noticed that he, unlike the other soldiers he had fought up until now, wielded dual blades. "I never intended to."

"If you're done talking," the announcer said with a bored tone, "then fight!"

Link rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure." Ico simply nodded.

Ico took the first shot. He rushed forward with impressive speed and swung. Link almost didn't raise his shield in time to block. The blade bounced off the shield, and Link almost got a chance to strike, but was forced back onto defense when the other wooden weapon came flying at his face.

Link jumped away from his opponent to get his bearings. "Finally, a challenge!" He yelled happily before diving back into combat.

The two fought for a while, neither getting any closer to beating the other. Finally, Link successfully bashed Ico with his shield. He attempted a Helm Splitter, but Ico regained his senses in time to dodge.

Link landed on the ground and whipped around to find Ico, but didn't find him. He was suddenly bashed in the back of the head from behind. 'He got behind me? When did he do that?' Link thought as he stumbled.

Link successfully got away from his opponent, still in the battle. His head started to throb. "Well, good to know that at least one of Zelda's 'royal guards' is competent enough to land a hit!"

Ico smirked. "Why do you think I got this far?" Meanwhile, the crowd roared happily at Ico, telling to take Link down.

"Well, remember that everyone else can hardly hold a sword properly," Link said.

"They aren't that bad," Ico replied.

"By my standards, they are," Link told him.

"Seriously, who trained you?"

"For most of my life, my father-figure. Then on my journey, a stalfos, believe it or not."

"No, I don't believe it," Ico shrugged.

Meanwhile, the crowd yelled. "GO!" Many people shouted. Others yelled, "FIGHT!" A couple people even yelled, "GET MOVING, DAMMIT!"

"Well, aren't they a pain?" Link commented, glancing up at them.

"Just a little, but they are right, this is a tournament," Ico shrugged. Then, he said, "So, like it or not, here I come!"

He dashed forward. Link frowned and waited. When Ico was almost upon him, he dived out of the way, rolling behind him and performing a Back Slice. Ico was knocked to the ground, and Link jumped into the air, bringing his sword down an inch to the side of Ico, purposely missing the Ending Blow, but using it nonetheless to prove he would have won if the duel had been to the death.

Link stood, pulling his sword from the ground and offering a hand to Ico. Ico smiled and grabbed the hand, getting up.

"And… Link is the winner yet again," the announcer said, cringing as the crowd went into another uproar that nearly killed his ears.

* * *

Link walked out of the castle, chatting with Ico, who insisted that they talk. Link assumed Ico just wanted to get Link to remove his mask, which they both knew wasn't going to happen, but he talked to the other boy nonetheless. They stopped just at Hyrule field, looking out at the peaceful area, standing on the steps to the bridge leading into the town.

"So, how old are you?" Link asked. "I can tell you aren't much older than me."

"What does it matter?"

Link shrugged. "I'm curious."

"I'm 19," he said.

Link whistled. "Nice, how'd you get into Zelda's guard then?"

"Dumb luck and a lot of training," was the answer. "How 'bout you? How'd you get this far?"

"I told you. A stalfos trained me." Ico shot him a skeptical look. "He taught me 7 ancient techniques, known as the Ending Blow, Shield Bash, Back Slice, Helm Splitter, Mortal Draw, Jump Strike, and Great Spin Attack. I also learned a lot through fighting various enemies that Ganondorf sent across the world."

"So you were part of that resistance thing?" Ico asked.

"Not really. I did my thing while they did theirs. They pointed me in the direction I should go, and I went there. I did what I had to do. I fought off the monsters inhabiting the areas, and retrieved the parts of an object we had to repair in order to stop the madness."

"So why are you joining the royal guard? Are you bored?"

"No, my father-figure put me up to it. He thought I couldn't figure out what was going on. As soon as he said, 'We're going to Castle Town,' I knew what he was doing. It's worked out for the better, though. I have a matter that I need Zelda's help with."

"Why do you call her 'Zelda'? Shouldn't you call her 'princess'? I know you helped free Hyrule or whatever, but why?"

"Because she really doesn't give a crap," Link answered with a shrug. "She's shockingly lax. Yesterday she started to swear in front of me. You should have seen my reaction."

Ico smiled. "I would have loved to see that. I never even heard that the princess would even think of swearing. In fact, with the life she lives, I wouldn't have been surprised if she didn't even know what a swear word is."

Link chuckled. "Yeah, I know, right?" After a moment of silence, Link asked, "Hey, your weapons…" He glanced at the two heavily stylized steel weapons, which he used outside of the tournament, strapped to his back. "Where'd you learn to wield two? I don't read much, but I did read somewhere that it's a difficult skill to pick up."

Ico nodded. "It is. You have to know how to utilize them effectively. You don't have one arm for defense and one for offence." He pulled one sword out of its scabbard, holding it up and inspecting it. "It's hard, but it's quite nice."

"How'd you learn?" Link asked.

"It's something I taught myself," he answered. "I was bored, and so I went outside, picked up two sticks, and started swinging them around until I had mastered them."

Link smiled. "You're damn good for self-taught. You know, I hear almost all of the ancient Heroes are self-taught. They were given a sword and told to go kill some monsters. If the chosen Hero hadn't revealed himself already, I would have joked that you were him."

"You know, I want to meet the chosen Hero. He sounds like an interesting guy."

"He certainly is," Link assured him.

"You've met him?" Ico asked, seemingly excited.

Link nodded with a chuckle. "Of course. He went everywhere and talked to everyone. It's hard not to."

Ico sighed. "Damn. I've never talked to him."

Link smiled. "Yes, you have. Like I said, he talked to everyone. He's still doing so."

"How do you know?" Ico asked.

"Because," Link said with a smirk, and, even to his own surprise, removed his mask, "I'm him."

Ico wore a look of shock. "EH?! How are you the Hero?"

Link frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You seem like such an arrogant, stuck-up jerk most of the time!"

Link's frown deepened. "Of course. I act that way to the people in the tournament to get them to not hold back. I don't want to tell them I'm the Hero; otherwise they'd be kissing my feet or something. But if I didn't infuriate them, they wouldn't take me seriously."

"Of course they would. If you get into a royal tournament because of the princess, that's a big deal. Of course they'd care."

"Fair enough. I just feel that they would hold back because they're afraid that they would wipe the floor with me otherwise." Link put the mask back on, turning and heading back to the town. "Hey, do me a favor, would you? Don't tell anyone who I am."

"As you wish, Link, the Hero of Twilight." Ico mock-bowed to him, making fun of the fact that Link didn't want anyone kissing his feet.

"Fuck you," Link muttered before he left. All this got was a laugh from Ico.

* * *

**The 'toroid' thing is a bit of an inside joke. Basically, it's from an insult my dad taught me that involves overly complicated words that end with a really obscure meaning at the end. In fact, 'toroid' isn't even a word by the spell-checker's standards.**

**Also, the whole ending talk is just _so_ calm. That's because I am watch the most lax anime I've ever seen. It's called Kino's Journey. It's really calm, and it's opening is a little confusing, but if you're bored, go watch it. It's good.**

**So tell me, anyone know where 'Ico' came from. Well, technically I got it from a Zelda name generator. But when I saw it, I decided to throw it in because I love the place where I heard it first.**


	11. Teleportation Is A Thing

**I realized something important. You'll see.**

**Sorry for taking as long as a month. You know me, though, that's about regular. On the bright side, I'm making a special chapter that will be Christmas based. (Sorry for those that don't celebrate Christmas)**

**Anyway, I'll upload that one or a day before or after Christmas.**

* * *

Chapter 11

Link yawned, bored, as he and Midna traveled across the land. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He stopped walking.

Midna stopped too, and looked back at him. "What is it?" She asked upon seeing the thoughtful look on his face.

"Why don't we just teleport?" He asked.

Midna was silent for a moment. "Good question," she finally responded. "Then let's go." Link changed into a wolf, and she snapped her fingers. They turned into Twilight Particles, flying through the air.

* * *

The duo arrived instantaneously in the next town. Link removed his bow from his pouch. He started to inspected it as he said, "It's nice to know that you can actually get from town to town like that. Maybe we can wrap this up in the next 5 days or so."

Midna snorted. "5 might be pushing it. There are a lot of towns, you know."

Link paused and glanced back at her with a frown. "Don't spoil my fun," he said. "How many towns are there, anyway?"

"I never kept track," Midna replied somewhat sheepishly.

Link sighed and turned back to his bow. "That's annoying."

"Yep. Let's get a map after freeing this town."

"Do we really have to free them all?" Link asked. "I mean, I'm all for helping people, but if there are more than 6, can we just go straight for the final boss? It's not like I have to go searching for any more magic macguffins, right?"

"The hell's a 'macguffin?'" Midna asked as Link finished his inspections, drawing an arrow from his quiver and preparing his sleeping potion.

"It's something I read once. A 'macguffin' is basically a magical plot device for stories. They're there to advance the story, nothing more, really."

"So you're comparing our adventures to a story in a book?"

"Yep," Link said as he took aim, pointing the arrow to the first soldier.

* * *

"Fuck this noise!"

"Link, there are seven. Get over it."

"NO! I told you if there are more that 6 we'd skip them!"

"Link, there are 7, counting the one we just freed. Technically, there are 6."

Midna sighed, frustrated, as she and Link leaned over a spread-out map.

Link frowned. "I never said that it didn't include this one."

Midna scowled. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Link, just fucking do it. We have to give Zelda some time on her end to come up with a better plan than 'storm the enemy's stronghold and hope for the best.'"

"But I don't wanna…" Link complained like a child.

"Link…" Midna said threateningly.

Link pouted unhappily, but said, "Fine."

"Honestly, what am I, your mother?"

"I certainly do hope not."

Midna raised an eyebrow, and choose to not say anything about that, instead moving on. "So, let's focus on this town next." She pointed to the second largest town on the map.

"That place'll be crawling with soldiers," Link commented.

"True, but it has nearly half of the available supplies. Freeing that will go a long way."

Link nodded in understanding. "Where's the other half?"

"In the town in front of the castle," she answered, pointing to it.

Link nodded again. "We have to save that for last, huh?"

"Yes."

"…Should we focus on the smaller areas first? Build up a resistance group, before the enemy catches onto what we're doing?"

Midna thought for a second before sighing. "Yes, I guess that is the more strategic option in this kind of warfare. I kinda got used to just jumping into a big stuff, and doing the small things as we go, thanks to you."

Link grinned. "Well, that's how I prefer how to do stuff. I guess it rubbed off on you." He paused for a moment in thought. "Did you know Zelda's blaming her swearing on you?"

"What?"

"Yeah, she swore, and I pointed it out to her. Then she contradicted herself, saying that she was chucking swears left and right directly after the invasion started, but picked it up from when you two were bonded."

"What a bitch," Midna said jokingly.

"I know, right? So how much time do we have left in the day?"

"A couple hours."

"Let's go free some towns then!"

"Shouldn't we recruit some soldiers first?"

Link frowned, wanting to get moved. Then, he snapped his fingers. "Let's get Kage to handle recruitment!"

"But what about the town he's defending?"

"We'll get the standby guards at that first town to do it."

"Don't you mean the second town?"

"No, the first we freed."

"Oh. Sure, let's go do that."

The two teleported right there, not announcing they were leaving. They shocked the inhabitants of the village because their saviors suddenly vanished with no explanation.

* * *

In the first saved town, Link gathered up all the spare soldiers and Midna teleported them to the village Kage was staying at.

Similarly to what happened when they first arrived, the villagers freaked out upon finding people teleporting into the town. Kage rushed out, sword in hand, ready to defend the town. His eyes widened upon seeing the number of his supposed enemies.

Upon saw Link's wolf form come into existence, Kage let out a long sigh of relief and lowered his weapon. He approached them.

"You guys damn near gave me a heart attack," he told them when they finished reforming. "In fact, I think half the population of the town just died from fright."

"What about the other half?" Link asked.

"Probably in a coma, again from fright."

Link snorted briefly before moving on. He pointed behind him, to the soldiers. "These guys are going to watch over the village for a while."

"What about me?" Kage asked. "I was doing just fine." He almost seemed wounded.

"We need you to handle recruitment," Midna answered. "We're stepping it up and moving faster because we suddenly remembered that teleportation was a thing. As such, we don't want to wait around in each town for all the soldiers to wake up, figure out which ones will be easy to convince, and so on and so forth."

Kage seemed to perk up. "Yeah, I can do that! I'll be home that much faster! I'll go tell the mayor, and then we can be on our way!" He ran down the street, rushing into the mayor's house. Two minutes later, Kage and the mayor emerged from the house.

The mayor looked weary, but after a moment of talking to Gimlet, who was almost unnaturally perky, he loosened and was assured that the soldiers weren't going to harm them. The mayor took the soldiers away to show them around town.

Link looked to Kage. "Ready?" He asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Where'd you get all those guys though?"

"They were all at the town with the swordsmith. Actually, that's only half of them. The other half is guarding the other town."

Kage looked worried. "That's a lot of soldiers for a mere outpost."

Link thought for a second. "I guess that's true. They're going all out in this attempt to murder Midna and take over the kingdom."

Midna nodded. "It's probably something to worry about, but let's not be concerned with it until we have to actually deal with the main force. By then, we should have a force that's at least a third of it."

"Shouldn't we aim for half?" Link asked.

"I can't just get half the whole force, Link. And it's out of my hands how many we can get anyway."

Link nodded. "Right. Let's go then."

Midna nodded, and they teleported.

* * *

In Town #2, (with the other towns now to be known as #0 &amp; #1) Link first remembered to get a shield. He went to the shop and got the only one that wasn't cheap Twilight wood equivalent.

With that out of the way, he ushered Kage into the room with the chained up soldiers. The poor guy seemed shocked by the large number of people.

"Is there a third tribe I wasn't aware of?" He asked. "Seriously, I don't think there are enough men in our tribe to cover all this."

"Did anyone come to your tribe at any time?" Link asked.

"A couple came to escape a calamity that was happening over here a couple weeks back, but there were only a couple and they seemed pretty lifeless, muttering about beasts and seeing their families mutated."

Midna frowned. "There'd better not be another force at play here, or else someone is going to die!"

"Someone's doing to die anyway," Link pointed out.

"Someone really important."

"Someone really important is going to die anyway."

"Fuck off, you know what I mean!"

Link smiled. "I know. I just can't help but be a smartass about it."

Midna scowled for a moment before laughing. "You're annoying."

"Same to you, buddy."

"Uh, guys?" Kage said. "Shouldn't you be going?"

Link chuckled sheepishly. "Oh yeah, we should."

Kage rolled his eyes and waved as they disappeared into particles.

* * *

A couple hours later, Link was about to shoot the final two soldiers, who were standing tensely, carefully watching the surrounding area. He reached for his arrows. His hand grabbed air. Confused, he looked down, and found he didn't have any.

"Shit!" He hissed.

"Guess you'll actually have to fight," Midna commented.

"But… that means I have to be mindful of the fact that I need them alive," Link complained.

"Suck it up, you big baby. You got that sword for a reason, you know," Midna said, pushing him into the open.

"There you are, you fucker!" One of the men shouted, drawing his weapon.

"Oh joy," Link said sarcastically, pulling out his sword. It took all of two seconds to disarm the men. "Surrender."

The men's eyes twitched under their helmets.

"How the shit? What are you, the legendary blue-eyed beast of this land's legend?"

Link raised an eyebrow. "Wow, correct on the first try. That's a new one."

The men seemed shocked. "No way, that's a pathetic legend our tribe doesn't even believe in!" The second yelled, incredulous.

Link shrugged. "Huh. Good for you. Now surrender."

"Fine," the first said, resigned.

Link smiled and ordered them to gather their unconscious comrades up. They begrudgingly did so. While they did that under Link's supervision, Midna teleported to Town #2 to get Kage. She came back a couple minutes later and said, "He's knee-deep into convincing the other town's guards to join us. Actually, it's more like ankle-deep. He hasn't gotten very far."

"Should we just call it a day then?" Link asked.

"Unless you have some more arrows lying around in your pouch, which I highly doubt."

Link chuckled. "Oh yeah," he muttered. "I need more arrows. Forgot about that. I'm so used to being stocked up all the time."

"It's not often that you go and shoot two towns worth all around the place, snapping half of them after just one use. Seriously, Light Realm materials are so flimsy."

"They are not. They're just a tad more expendable, and so I don't take care of them as well as I should."

The two surrendered men came back. "We're back, sir," they muttered dully.

"You got them to call you 'sir?'"

Link shrugged. "It wasn't my idea."

The men held out a number of broken arrows. "As you requested, sir," one of them murmured monotonously.

"Your broken arrows? Why, I thought you said they were expendable?"

"They are," Link answered, shoving them in his pouch. "But I'm a farmboy. I know that we as a race rely heavily on the Earth. So leaving any materials in another realm where the materials won't go back to where they should be is bad to me."

"I don't understand you."

"Nor I you, my friend."

Midna shrugged, then thought of something. "So, wait. If that's your rule, are you ever going to return that toy you took with you to the Light Realm?"

Link frowned. "I threw it under my bed to keep it out of Rusl's sight."

"And you couldn't just hide it under your covers?"

"Apparently not."

Midna raised an eyebrow at the Light Dweller's apparent inability to think quickly when it didn't come to combat. She was unable to come up with a decent response, so she just moved on. "So, let's go then."

"Where?"

"Back to Town #1, where else? Their beds were really comfy."

Link smiled. "Alright. Let me just take care of these two first." He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the almost lifeless soldiers.

* * *

After chaining the two men up alongside their comrades, Link walked over to Midna. "So, with the addition of the magic that is your teleportation ability, how long should this whole ordeal last?"

"For me, five days… maybe."

"And for me…?" Link asked, confused.

"Twice as long."

"WHY!?"

"Because you have to live a day here, then a day in the Light Realm."

Link paused in thought. "Never thought about that."

"It's a wonder that you don't. I know you're more muscle than brain, but that's ridiculous. You're traversing Realms here without any restrictions other than what time you go to bed! Don't you wonder how that works? I mean, you stay awake for the same amount of hours here as I've seen you stay awake in the Light Realm, so technically the times where you're awake should overlap! Aren't you curious at all?"

Link raised an eyebrow. "When you mention that my waking hours should overlap, yeah. But otherwise, I'm just considering it the Goddesses taking pity on the poor, tortured soul of a hero who's lost a companion."

"Didn't I read somewhere that the other incarnations lost their companions too? The Hero of Time and his fairy friend, the Hero of the Sky put his companion to rest or something, and the Hero of the Minish and the tiny mage-turned-cap."

"Where'd you read that?"

"Zelda slipped me a royal book about the Hero's various incarnations."

"Why couldn't she give me that? I'm the Hero here, shouldn't I know about my own soul?"

"I think she assumed that your memories are imprinted there, and you can just recall them if you so desire."

"I don't think it works like that."

"It probably doesn't, but that's my best guess."

Link yawned. "Yeah. I'll ask her when I get back. Speaking of which, are we going to go, or stand around talking?"

Midna sighed. "Fine, fine," she said, teleporting them.

Back at Town #1, Link scratched out a to-do list on a piece of paper he had with him. He needed arrows, and to make more of that sleep potion, beat down another dumbass that thought he could beat the Hero of Twilight, and then go searching for Twilight Shards.

Satisfied, he returned the paper to his pouch and fell asleep gripping it.

* * *

**The ending's a little lame, but I'm tired, and this got to 2,400 words, so I figured it was good enough, considering I was worried that it might not break 2,000.**


	12. Christmas!

**So, I'm uploading this earlier than I originally intended due to the fact that I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing on Christmas, and tomorrow I'm going to be hanging with my mother all day at her store, where there isn't internet that I can just hack into. (Not that I commonly hack into people's internet, mind you.)**

* * *

_**Christmas! **_**(This takes place either outside of the main story altogether, or else after the mirror is fixed and they have a happily ever after.)**

* * *

"So… what's Christmas?" Midna asked as she watched Link whack at a large tree.

Link shrugged, lowering his ax. "It's a really weird holiday some neighboring country got us into. Basically, we put up a tree, and decorate it, and then exchange gifts on Christmas day."

Midna looked confused. "What?"

"Don't question it. Where'd you hear of it anyway?"

"I was hanging with Zelda a couple days ago while you were working and she was muttering about it."

Link smiled. "Huh. Didn't know she did anything for the holidays."

"Why wouldn't she?" Midna asked. She turned her attention to the tree Link was trying to fell. "So… what are you doing?"

"Getting a tree," Link replied casually.

"That's one big ass tree," Midna commented, concerned. "Don't you set it up inside of your house? That thing is almost as big as it!"

Link chuckled. "This is my job for the day. Once I manage to fell it, if there aren't any deaths by anyone walking where they shouldn't be, then we as a village set it up in the middle of town, decorate it, and gather around it on the specified day to trade our handmade gifts."

"You have to make gifts for everyone? That's a lot of work."

Link smiled. "Yes. For the adults, it is actually quite simple, just offer to do all of their housework for them, and other such things. They always groan about it at every other point in the year, so the children, Ilia and I included, set up a system to allow them a couple days off. They always savor it, and laze about, and it makes it worth it. And for the kids, you just have to carve them something, like a sword for Talo, who still hasn't gotten a real one despite his pleas."

Midna snorted. "The kid still hasn't managed to get one?"

Link shrugged. "I'm not going to question it, despite the fact that he probably should have one by now." He picked the ax and started to chop again, gruntingly lightly from the effort.

Tree began to lean dangerously. Link backed away, pulling Midna along with him. Finally, the tree's lean became too much for it and it fell, causing a loud crash as it hit the ground.

"And now all we have to do it get it back to the village."

"How?"

"We drag it," Link answered simply, starting to chop at the uneven base to even it out.

Midna briefly thought to offer to just teleport it, but seeing Link's joy in the project stopped her. It was the villagers' project, and not something she should interfere with.

Link finished flattening the base. He looked down at the pile of wood that had fled from the tree's base while he was hacking away at it. He brought out his horse call and blew into it, calling Epona. He loaded the wood up onto her saddle. He handed the reins to Midna.

"I need to finish up here. Can you get Epona back to my place and unload the wood? The day's about to end, so can you unsaddle her too?"

Midna nodded and walked Epona back. The mare was compliant the whole way. She strangely liked the girl with the fire-red hair and almost blue skin. She could tell that the women was the same one, the little imp that rode the wolf, that had assisted her master on his quest, in the same way that she could tell her master was her master in the form of a beast.

Upon reaching the house, Midna started to unload the wood. It hadn't even been a month since she started to hang around Link while he was at home, and he made her work, so she already knew what she was doing.

After unsaddling the mare and watching her roll around happily in the grass for a moment, she turned to return to Link. To her surprise, all of the villagers, except Uli, who was caring for her child, were going down the path she had just come from.

Jogging over to the mass of people, she asked Rusl, "What's going on?"

Rusl looked up at her, as she was slightly taller than him, and said, "We're going to get the tree. You were with Link all day, right? He told you about the holiday?"

Midna nodded. "Alright, I guess that makes sense." She followed them to the spot where she had left Link.

The teen looked over at the villagers and smiled proudly.

"It's almost too big," Fado commented.

"Hey, I'm not the one who picked it out, OK?" Link said.

"We know. But looking at it now… I wonder if we can drag it back."

"We got to try, right?" Bo asked.

The large group let out a massive hearty shout, getting to work. The men and Link took up the heavy base with the females taking the middle. The children held up the end, keeping it from dragging along the ground.

Midna watched them with interest, following them as they walked. Finally, they managed to get the large tree into the village, managing to set it upright on the mostly flat base. They secured it in place with rope and set about decorating it with various ornaments.

"Aren't you afraid that it will rain or snow?" Midna asked Link as he came by to get another decoration.

"Yeah, it's pretty common down here," Link replied without much thought.

"Aren't you afraid it'll all get knocked down?"

"That's happened a couple years, but we never put up the really precious stuff until a couple hours before the kids wake up." His voice lowered to a whisper, "We tell them that a deity hangs them up for us and provides the children with most of their toys."

"Why a deity?"

"Well, he's not technically a deity, he's just practically worshipped as one. This was the neighboring country's thing, remember?"

"I don't care where it came from. You Light Dwellers are all the same to me."

"Not all of us are the same," Link said with a frown.

"OK, no. But only you, who I swear lacks a sense of fright, Zelda, who is a princess with nigh infinite forethought, and Ganon, the insufferable fuckwad, are able to stand out to me."

Link rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he said before walking away, returning to his previous task.

Finally, the tree was done. The ornaments sparkled as they caught the light of the retreating sun.

"Pretty," Midna commented as the villagers stood back to admire their work.

"That's half the reason we do this to begin with."

"What's the other half?"

"It's fun and good for bonding."

"You found it fun to cut away at a tree all day?"

"Not that part. The decorating."

"Ah."

The sun's light finally disappeared completely. Everyone, now unable to see the tree's majesty, retreated into their homes.

* * *

The next couple days were a complete bore. The day before Christmas, Midna received a telepathic message from Zelda. 'Kindly bring Link to the castle tomorrow.'

She replied to this with, 'I believe that he'll be celebrating with his village all day tomorrow. I don't think it would be good to drag him away.'

A moment passed, and she received a reply. 'Then drag his ass over here today!'

Midna was shocked at her ferocity, and so went to where Link was casually resting by the lake; his feet dipped in the water. He turned when he heard her approach.

"Get up. Zelda wants to see you."

"Now?"

"Yes, I believe so."

Link stood, putting on his sandals, grimacing a little as they squished under his wet feet. They walked to the outskirts of the village, and they teleported.

* * *

At the castle, they were met by Zelda.

"Good morning," they greeted each other casually.

"Link, I have a request," Zelda said, jumping right to the topic she wanted to talk about.

"Yes?"

"I want to spend this holiday outside of the castle, by all of the servants and advisors and all that jazz are being sticks in the mud. Do you mind if I spend a couple days with you?"

Link thought for probably only a microsecond. "Of course."

Zelda smiled. "Then let's go, before someone sees that I'm going to leave."

Midna nodded and teleported them.

* * *

It was… interesting to have the princess around, to say the least. She seemed much too surprised when night came, and Link went to get some firewood, and Midna followed him, assisting him in chopping the wood into smaller bits for the fire and carrying them inside.

She also seemed quite shocked when Link was making dinner. He requested something, and so Midna went over to the cabinets, almost without thought, and located the desired item, and then tossed it to him, without any use of magic that would make it easier. When he was done with it, he tossed what remained back and requested something else. Midna returned the remains of the item to the spot where it had rested before locating the next thing.

Not once did Link ask Zelda to do anything. He could tell she was shocked by the Twili's automatic behavior. It was actually a little funny to see the minute changes in her expression with each thing that Midna did that wasn't 'normal.'

"Why not just use magic?" Zelda finally dared to ask.

"For what?" Midna asked, tossing another item, this one a bottle of spices.

"For getting the ingredients," she answered.

"Ah, I guess that would work," Midna answered after a moment of thought, which almost caused her to get clocked by the returning bottle.

"Potato," Link said simply.

Midna grabbed a potato and chucked it. Link caught it with ease.

"Knife."

Midna, this time, used her magic in order to reduce risk of impaling the Hero.

"You… only use magic for the things that might hurt him?" Zelda asked.

Midna shook her head. "All of them can hurt him, technically. You just need to get it going fast enough. I've just run his hand through with a knife before, and would prefer to avoid it going it again. I actually can use magic, but Link doesn't want me to use it in front of the villagers because they might freak out like with his wolf form, and it's just kind of carried over to other activities."

Zelda fell silent, watching them curiously, specifically when Link chucked the knife back. Midna almost missed registering that it was coming back and only stopped it a couple centimeters from her face.

"Throw a little to the left next time," she advised casually, grabbing the handle and releasing her magic.

"For everything, or just the knives?"

"Knives."

"Ah."

* * *

About an hour before the sun was to rise, therefore signaling the villagers' normal awakening time, Link awoke to the call of Rusl. He slipped out of bed with a yawn and climbed down the ladder. Midna awoke when he was halfway down, disturbed by the call and Link's movement.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Didn't I tell you? We're putting the children's presents that we say are from the deity-type creature, and putting up the good ornaments," Link answered, climbing the rest of the way down and lightly slapping his cheek in a vain attempt to wake himself up.

Midna, curious, crawled out of her bed, shivering slightly as the warmth from her covers refused to leave with her.

"You don't have to come, you know."

"Yeah, that may be true, but I'm curious."

Link nodded and waited for her.

Outside, all of the adults were trying to work, shivering all the way. There was a small fire by the box containing the decorations and the presents for the children that were supposedly from the deity, providing the villagers warmth when they walked by, and light by the side of the tree that wasn't illuminated by the moon.

* * *

It took no more than about 10 to 20 minutes to finish everything. Fado stomped out the fire, but didn't do anything to hide that it was there to begin with. Link said to Midna, "We tell the kids that the deity camps out here for a couple minutes for a rest because it's so calm here. They always try to stay up to see it happen, but never manage it. It lets them sleep past sunrise, which the adults prefer, rather than having them bouncing off the walls at the earliest possible hour."

Midna nodded, and they returned to Link's house, which was much warmer than the outside. The two crawled into their respective beds, which had lost most of their heat, and fell asleep again.

* * *

A little after sunrise, Link rose from his bed like he was a Redead. He wanted to return to bed, but knew he should be up. He yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, threw some clothes on and went to the dark basement to find the presents that he had hid. He tried to light his lantern, but was disappointed to find that it was empty. With a sigh, he returned upstairs to get his Shadow Crystal. Downstairs, he changed and activated his senses. Now able to see about a meter in from of him, he carefully walked forward, locating one of the presents and pushing it with his head to the stairs.

"Having fun?" Link heard Midna ask.

Link removed the Shadow Crystal and called up, "Not really. Can you bring this up?" He held up the box. "Just use your magic."

Midna did as he requested, and then jumped down, landing with a loud 'thunk'.

Link cringed. "You're going to wake Zelda."

"So? She needs to get up sometime." Midna shrugged, indifferent. She created a ball of magic, lighting the area in front of them. "Does that help?"

"Very much, thank you." Link retrieved the rest of his presents, having Midna lift them up too.

After waking Zelda, the three went outside, where Fado was coming by to see if Link was awake yet. It was an understate to say that he was shocked to see Hyrulian royalty standing there. He was used to the Twili, she was there more than enough for him to not been shocked, but Zelda?

He froze for a moment staring at her, until Link asked, "Is there something you need, Fado?"

He jumped, looking to Link. "Yes, I was just checking to see if you were awake yet."

Link jumped down from the porch area with Midna following a moment later, both of them almost losing the presents that they held. Zelda, being sane and not holding anything, took the ladder.

"Mind if I ask why the princess is here?" Fado whispered to Link.

"She wanted to get out of the castle for the holiday."

"Ah…"

"Alright, let's go!" Link said excitably like a little kid once Zelda got off the ladder.

The four went down to the town's center, where Zelda stared in utter awe at the tree. "How did you do all that without magic?"

Link and Midna glanced at each other in slight concern. Was she really that magic-oriented or just that sheltered?

"Uh, just hard work, really," Link answered.

They heard childish screams of joy. The children came running out of their houses, plopping down in front of the tree, looking eager, yet strangely serene. The adults gave them the go-ahead, and they jumped forward, figuring out which was theirs and ripping them open. When they picked up a box that wasn't theirs, they kindly handed it off to the correct person.

With the children's curiosity sated, they briefly returned to their houses to get their presents.

For the next couple hours, the village was bustling with happy folk enjoying the holiday. Midna and Zelda stayed off to the side, not joining in due to not technically being part of the town. So they took to lightly conversing about various things.

Eventually, the festivities wore down, and everyone slowly returned to their daily lives because the nature they worked with didn't take a day off. The children, as per their promises, took over for the day while the adults stayed outside and soaked up the sun.

Midna assisted Link with all of his usual tasks, but ended up leaving all of the other duties he had taken up for the day to him unless he specifically asked for something.

By the end of the day, Zelda rather sheepishly requested to return home, saying that she had a good time, but should really return before anyone becomes too panicked. Link knew the real reason was because she felt too out of place, but didn't say anything, instead bidding her farewell and a merry Christmas before Midna teleported her back.

The two spent the last hour of the day eating and laughing lightly at Zelda's awkwardness.

* * *

**And with that, I bid you and yours a very merry non-denominational winter solstice festival, and a very merry New Years as well.**


	13. Important Update

It hasn't been that long since I've updated this story, so it might be a bit of a shocker to you, or not, it depends on the type of person you are, but, uh, I haven't felt inspired for this story in forever. That and the two that I make on my iPod, now switching to the laptop I got for Christmas.

Anyway, the point of this small little update is... I'm going to put this on a hiatus. This and my other LoZ story. I'm just not feeling them. You see, I have this rule about updating... I update what was updated at the bottom of my recently updated, but still active stories. Does that make sense? At all? I can't explain it in words. Um... for example, my Naruto story is the one I'm working on right now because of the three I work on on my PC, it's at the bottom of the list.

now then, I'm one of those strange people that make a rule and bind themselves to it. Seriously, every school day, I listen to all of my 60 something songs (adding up to 222 minutes) before I listen to whatever I feel like listening to. I made that rule up for myself to keep from repeating a couple of songs to the point where I hate them. I've done that one too many times now.

(Takes a deep breath and tries to get back on track...) My point is that I've bound myself to my updating rule, and only by removing the story from my active list will fix that.

Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever pick this up again. So, feel free to pick it up for me. Just tell me. So long as you don't completely butcher everything I've made, have at it.


End file.
